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VALVES & ACTUATORS
MEET NEW DEMANDS
February 2014 The magazine for the international power industry
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www.PowerEngineeringInt.com 1 Power Engineering International February 2014
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Contents
POWER ENGINEERING INTERNATIONAL
On the cover
The changing face of southern Africas power sector - p.8
Features
16 The balancing act of electricity storage
Why understanding the way the cost of energy storage works
will lift the fog that obscures the economics behind the
concept.
20 Valves and actuators keep pace with demands
The global power market is demanding greater fexibility and
effciency and these changing operating conditions are
having an impact on valve and actuator technology.
Power Report
8 Focus on Southern African opportunities
While South Africa remains the dominant electricity market
in southern Africa, there is a wealth of opportunity in other
nations in the region too.
2 Industry Highlights
4 News Analysis
44 Diary
45 Project & Technology Update
48 Ad Index
FEBRUARY 2014/// VOLUME 22/// ISSUE 2
Stairway to sustainable heaven? A peek at new
developments at low-carbon city Masdar - p.36
Source: Siemens
28 Green funding for blue sky thinking
The European Commission is throwing its weight and its wallet
behind a multi-billion low-carbon energy research initiative.
32 Bearing up to turbine testing
How the largest test rig in the world is helping to ensure the
reliability of testing large-size bearings for wind turbines.
36 The shape of things to come
The talking points in the conferences and on the streets of
Masdar City at the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi.
40 Advanced air preheater sealing
Why there needs to be a change in attitude towards air
preheater leakage in cases of loss of boiler effciency.
1402pei_1 1 2/12/14 3:30 PM
2 Power Engineering International February 2014 www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
Industry Highlights
W
e are just into the second month of
2014 and controversy has already
raised its head.
Towards the end of January, the European
Commission (EC) released its much-awaited
Energy & Climate Package, its policy framework
that establishes targets up to 2030. Two of the
goals of particular interest in my opinion are the
40 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions (compared to the 1990
level) and an EU-wide binding target of 27 per
cent for renewable energy.
Neither on the surface appears to be
anything new compared to the Commissions
previous Energy & Climate Package, except
the targets are a bit higher. However, as the old
adage says, the devil is in the detail.
Contrary to its predecessor, the 2030
Energy & Climate Package makes a signifcant
distinction by not setting binding renewable
energy targets for individual Member States,
keeping the target purely at the EU level.
A press release from the EC, released after
the announcement, said: An EU-level target
for renewable energy is necessary to drive
continued investment in the sector. However, it
would not be translated into national targets
through EU legislation, thus leaving fexibility
for Member States to transform the energy
system in a way that is adapted to national
preferences and circumstances. read
current economic climate.
Clearly this would give EU countries that
still have electricity generation systems heavily
reliant on fossil fuels, and coal in particular,
some breathing space in terms of transitioning
their systems to lower-carbon alternatives, so
Im sure that countries like Poland breathed
a sigh of relief when they saw the framework.
Another potentially interesting aspect
of this policy framework arises because it
essentially uncouples the GHG emissions
reduction target and the renewable energy
target at the national level, i.e. unlike the
renewables target individual Member States
will have to set mandatory targets for GHG
emissions reduction.
Thus, could this new EU framework actually
provide the long-awaited policy impetus to
kick-start the commercialization of carbon
capture and storage (CCS)?
The Carbon Capture & Storage Association
in the UK certainly is optimistic. In a statement
it said: It is absolutely critical that Europe sets
an ambitious target for emissions reductions
for 2030. This must remain the cornerstone of
the EUs response to climate change and will
be vital in driving future investment in all low-
carbon technologies, including CCS.
It also recommends that the renewables
target is either dropped or expanded into a
sustainable energy target which includes CCS,
providing Member States with the fexibility to
meet targets at the lowest cost to consumers.
However, this is unlikely to happen
because subsequently MEPs in the European
Parliament voted in favour of not only having a
mandatory renewable energy target for each
Member State, but increasing the target to
30 per cent at the EU-level.
Although the parliamentary vote is not
binding it clearly sends a strong signal to EU
governments ahead of next months heads
of government summit, where the EUs climate
and energy targets for 2030 will be debated
I anticipate the debate being a heated one.
Read our analysis of the situation on p.45.
Another recent example of what some
see as EU meddling in Member State affairs is
this months request by the EUs antitrust chief
Joaquin Almunia for the UK government to
clarify why state aid is needed to build its new
Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant.
Almunias comments follow a challenge
by the EC at the end of last year against the
British governments assertion that power price
guarantees and state-backed loans for the
16 million ($26.5 million) Hinkley Point C
project are legitimate aid. In response, the UK
government tried to reassure by saying the
Commissions announcement is standard
for large investment projects and was always
part of the process for Hinkley. However, this
latest intervention may raise serious doubts
over whether the deal will be able to progress
under its present terms.
Looking at the wider picture, the new
nuclear-build programme is a centre-piece
of the UKs energy strategy, so what would it
mean if the Hinkley Point deal fell through?
Could it potentially derail the whole electricity
market reform process and energy strategy?
Although the
parliamentary vote is
not binding it clearly
sends a strong signal
to EU governments
ahead of next months
heads of government
summit, where the EUs
climate and energy
targets for 2030 will
be debated
Dr. Heather Johnstone
Associate Publisher
www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
1402pei_2 2 2/12/14 3:30 PM
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1402pei_3 3 2/12/14 3:30 PM
4 www.PowerEngineeringInt.com Power Engineering International February 2014
News Analysis
To target or not to target that has been
the question debated and voted on by the
European Union (EU) in recent weeks over the
increasingly thorny issue of climate change
and renewable energy targets.
In January, the European Commission (EC)
decided to drop mandatory national targets
for renewable power from its plans. But on
5 February the European Parliament voted
against the Commissions proposal to drop
the binding 2030 renewable targets for EU
member states.
Lets look at the events as they happened
and the reaction they provoked.
On 22 January, the European Commission
outlined its plans for climate and energy policy
until 2030 at a press conference in Brussels
fronted by President Jos Manuel Barroso,
Energy Commissioner Gnther Oettinger
and Commissioner for Climate Action Connie
Hedegaard (pictured).
The commissioners wanted a binding
target to reduce carbon emissions by
40 per cent from 1990 levels. Under their plans,
renewables would need to provide 27 per
cent of EU energy by 2030, but while the target
would be binding at EU level, there would
be no mandatory targets for Member States.
But how the blocs nations would agree on
burden-sharing was unclear, though some
form of internal bargaining seemed likely.
Pragmatic or climbdown?
At a press briefng at Europe House in London,
EC spokespeople felded questions from the
media who were more than animated at the
U-turn on binding renewable targets.
While EC President Barroso was saying
what we are presenting today is both
ambitious and affordable, offcials in London
explained that the EU could not ignore the
reality of what is going on around us as
a means of explaining what some see as
a climbdown and others will say is a more
pragmatic approach.
Rather than thinking of achieving a non-
binding renewable target in terms of individual
member states, a spokesperson said they
were encouraging a more regionalised
geographic approach and wanted
neighbouring countries to confer with each
other, for the purposes of working out energy
trading, before each member state negotiates
with Brussels on what it is prepared to aspire to
in terms of a renewables target.
We have always said put the wind turbines
where the wind blows. Put your investment in
the most cost-effcient places in Europe. It has
to be a regionalised geographic approach
to renewables. It cant be done on a national
basis. For example, some countries have an
excess capacity of 11 per cent, which they
could easily exchange with neighbouring
countries.
Europes green wing responded with
dismay, saying the EU was pandering to those
industries which argued that tough targets
were undermining European competitiveness
while the US was profting from a shale boom.
The compromise that was reached would
satisfy the UK and Poland perhaps more
than most, and Germany the least. The UK
Debate over national renewable targets divides EC and MEPs
Talking power at the podium: Gunthar Oettinger, Jose Manuel Barroso and Connie Hedegaard
Credit: EC
1402pei_4 4 2/12/14 3:30 PM
1402pei_5 5 2/12/14 3:19 PM
6 www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
News Analysis
Power Engineering International February 2014
and Poland have argued strongly that the
mandatory target approach was too restrictive
and was preventing their governments from
cutting emissions in the most fnancially
effcient way.
Britain, which is expanding its nuclear
power stations and looking to develop shale
reserves, had fought hard for domestic leeway
on renewables and had sought non-binding
goals. Germany, by contrast, which is shutting
down its nuclear reactors, had lobbied for
binding targets.
The Commissions plan for 2030 is a sellout
that would knock the wind out of a booming
renewables industry, said Mahi Sideridou,
Greenpeaces EU managing director.
RenewableUK regretted the lack of
ambition showed in not proposing national
binding targets on renewable energy past
2020. Its chief executive Maria McCaffery
said the Commission was lacking ambition:
While it is pleasing to see the EU Commission
recognise that renewable energy is a key part
of future energy solutions across Europe, the
lack of ambition in not ensuring there are
national binding targets for renewable energy
is a disappointment.
This is a missed opportunity for member
states to take collective and serious action
on the drive for clean, sustainable, renewable
energy, which is the best option for reducing
our carbon emissions.
But on 5 February, the Commissions
controversial proposals ran into opposition
from MEPs. At a plenary meeting, the
Parliament called on the Commission and
the Member States to set a binding EU 2030
target of producing at least 30 per cent of total
fnal energy consumption from renewable
energy sources. It stressed that such a
target should be implemented by means of
individual national targets taking into account
the individual situation and potential of each
Member State.
While the European Parliament vote is
not binding, it sends a strong signal to EU
governments ahead of ministerial meetings
on 34 March and a heads of government
summit on 20-21 March, where EU 2030
climate and energy targets will be hotly
debated.
The debate on targets also prompted
some high-profle interventions.
Eurelectric, the trade association of the
electricity sector in Europe, demanded
binding emissions reduction targets and an
expansion of the EUs carbon trading scheme.
The association delivered a manifesto to
Energy Commissioner Oettinger calling for
EU and national policymakers to adopt an
economy-wide, binding 2030 greenhouse
gas reduction target of at least 40 per cent
compared to 1990 levels.
They urged Oettinger and his colleagues
to take measures that would re-orient
energy policy towards cost-effciency and
competitiveness.
The group advocates extending the
EUs emissions trading scheme to other
sectors after 2020, increasing investment in
modernising Europes electricity networks,
and removing regulated electricity prices that
distort the market.
Hans ten Berge, Eurelectric secretary
general, said: Policymakers must take greater
care to avoid policy-induced ineffciencies
and market distortions that are unnecessarily
pushing up the costs of providing electricity
and raising the bills for Europes customers.
National regulatory initiatives without
consideration for their impact on other
member states cannot remain the rule. Only a
true European approach can ensure renewed
investment in the future to the beneft of
European businesses and households alike.
And the heads of 24 non-government
organisations (NGOs) entered the debate
by writing a joint letter to German Chancellor
Angela Merkel in which they urged her to take
a lead in Europe over climate change and
renewables targets.
The NGOs are all European but not
German and include Oxfam, Carbon Market
Watch, Climate Action Network France and
the European Environmental Bureau.
In their letter they say that the Energiewende
shows the world and in particular Germanys
European neighbours that the energy
transition is not only technically possible but
also an economic and social opportunity
However, they say they are concerned by the
lack of climate leadership in Europe and ask
Merkel to step up and create a new dynamic
at European and international levels.
In particular they want the German leader
to push for at least a 55 per cent reduction in
EU emissions. The letter states that the 40 per
cent target is not suffcient to get us out of the
climate crisis, may put an artifcial cap on the
deployment of renewable energy and energy
effciency improvements, and is not enough to
revive the EUs fagging carbon market.
The NGOs also urge Merkel to strongly
support setting binding national renewables
targets. They wrote that as Germany has
already adopted domestic climate and
energy targets, it should fll that leadership
vacuum and drive the negotiating process.
Visit www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
for more information
i
The EC is under fre for failing to propose
binding national renewables targets
Credit: RWE
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T
he countries of southern Africa
have much in common. Their
people share many ancestors
with individual national identities
forged through migration, invasion
and settlement in the region
across the past two millennia. They also share
a history of colonization and exploitation by
European settlers from the ffteenth century
onwards, creating linguistic, economic and
governmental legacies that have often
persisted after independence. They also share
a legacy of under-development and most
have high levels of poverty.
Since 1995 the majority have shared a
regional electricity system, too the Southern
African Power Pool (SAPP) that allows them
to exchange power and maintain greater
system stability than would be possible as
individual, isolated nations. This goes some
way to making up for the limited access to
electricity in even the most highly developed
of the countries such as South Africa.
According to the South African Development
Bank, the average national level of access
to electricity in 2009 was only 30 per cent,
leaving more than two thirds of the collective
population to rely on traditional energy
sources such as fuel wood for heating
and cooking.
In spite of their shared heritage, there are
some stark differences. South Africa is the most
highly developed country in sub-Saharan
Africa, with a large economy, nuclear power
and the biggest power generation capacity
on the continent. Swaziland, which is virtually
enclosed by South Africa, is tiny, has a small
economy and electricity sector and imports
most of its power from its giant neighbour.
As a region, southern Africa has access to
all the important types of energy resources.
However these are spread unevenly across
the region. Angola has large oil and natural
gas reserves and has become a major
oil producer, providing an income which
is allowing the countrys infrastructure,
devastated by 25 years of war, to be rebuilt
using government resources. There is natural
gas in Mozambique and some yet-to-be
exploited reserves in Namibia. Mozambique
supplies pipeline gas to South Africa, the
main economic centre of the region, while
in Angola the construction of a liquefaction
plant should allow liquefed natural gas
South Africa remains the dominant electricity market in Southern Africa,
but, as Power Engineering International fnds out, there are signifcant development
opportunities in many other countries in the region.
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Southern Africa
(LNG) to be exported, raising government
revenues further.
Nuclear power is limited to one plant,
Koeberg in South Africa. Meanwhile Namibia
has valuable deposits of uranium with
identifed reserves amounting to 5 per cent
of the global total. Its two mines are capable
of supplying 10 per cent of world output,
according to the World Nuclear Organization.
There are extensive reserves of coal in South
Africa and these provide the country with most
of its power, as well as supplying a feedstock
for both liquid fuel and gasifcation plants.
Zimbabwe has coal reserves too and a mining
industry which supplies its own power stations.
Elsewhere coal reserves are limited, but Zambia
has some poor quality coal and there are
deposits of better grade coal in Swaziland.
However, even with these various fossil fuel
reserves, the region is a net importer of oil and
refned petroleum products.
With access to electricity limited across
the region, biomass is a major source of
energy. In South Africa, it still provides 10 per
cent of primary energy supply and in most
other countries this rises to over 50 per cent,
sometimes as high as 80 per cent. Only in
Mauritius has the domestic use of biomass
been virtually eradicated.
With agriculture an important economic
activity across much of the region, there
are large quantities of agricultural waste
generated including commercial volumes
of sugarcane bagasse which can be, and
sometimes is, converted into power. Forests,
which provide fuel wood in rural communities,
could potentially provide a signifcant power
generation resource too.
Potential for hydro
One of the most important and so far under-
developed resources in Africa is hydropower.
The exploitation of water resources for
drinking, irrigation and power generation
has formed the basis for modern economic
development in many of the developed
countries of the world and has the potential
to do the same in Africa if developed
sensitively. Most of the countries of southern
Africa have some hydro potential and
some have it in abundance. However its
development is costly and few have the
economic resources to fund the construction
of hydro plants alone.
There are arguments for hydro to be
considered a regional rather than a national
resource and shared development would
make funding easier. Rivers such as the
Zambezi and the Limpopo have basins which
straddle several countries and these rivers
could provide power to be distributed across
the region through the SAPP grid.
Further north, the Congo River has the
potential to become a powerhouse for the
whole of Africa. South Africa, through its utility
Eskom, is already helping promote hydro in
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a
development that could provide additional
power to South Africa.
While the major rivers of the region provide
potential sites for large hydropower plants
there are also many sites for small hydro
developments that can provide local, often
off-grid power today.
Other renewable resources are also
ailable. Wind potential is variable but there are
good wind regimes in coastal regions and in
some of the higher regions of southern Africa.
Solar energy is available in abundance across
the region too but cost is usually the barrier
which prevents its wide deployment. Most
solar generation is via small solar photovoltaic
installations funded by donor agencies and
providing power to remote facilities such as
hospitals, schools and clinics. Solar thermal
development would be possible, particularly
in the more arid regions, such as the Namib
Desert in Namibia or the Kalahari Desert that
covers large areas of Botswana, South Africa
and Namibia.
The African Rift Valley which crosses part
of southern Africa is geologically active and
could provide some geothermal capacity but
little surveying has been carried out, so the
extent of the potential is not known. There is
also scope for marine power generation with
good wave regimes on the western coast
of southern Africa generated by the winds
blowing across vast open stretches of the
southern Atlantic. Marine-current and ocean-
thermal energy is also available but all these
technologies are too expensive today for
deployment in the region.
Evolving market structure
Electricity came early to southern Africa,
brought by European settlers who wanted to
light their homes and workplaces, and needed
energy to drive mechanical machinery with
electric motors. The colonial governments
later established utilities to manage national
electricity supply in the same way as it was
being managed in Europe and the US, and
this legacy can still be traced in the names
of many of the utilities that operate in the
different countries of the region.
Historically, all these utilities were
government agencies and though most have
now been converted into limited companies,
in practice they are still controlled by their
respective governments. The level of oversight
varies, with some virtually autonomous
while others are closely managed by the
corresponding government agency.
Restructuring of the utilities has been
attempted in some of the countries, too, to create
independent generation, transmissioand
distribution companies. However, the level
Country Utility Abbreviation
Angola Empresa Nacional de Electricidade ENE
Botswana Botswana Power Corporation BPC
DRC Societe National dElectricite SNEL
Lesotho Lesotho Electricity Corporation LEC
Madagascar Jiro sy Rano Malagasy JIRAMA
Malawi Electricity Supply Corporation ESCOM
Mauritius Central Electricity Board CEB
Mozambique Electricidade de Mozambique EDM
Namibia NamPower NamPower
South Africa Electricity Supply Commission of South Africa Eskom
Swaziland Swaziland Electricity Company SEC
Tanzania Tanzania Electric Supply Company TANESCO
Zambia Zambia Electricity Supply Company Ltd ZESCO
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority ZESA
Table 1: National utilities in Southern Africa Source: Power Generation Research
1402pei_10 10 2/12/14 3:19 PM
1402pei_11 11 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Southern Africa
of success has varied. In South Africa, Eskom
was converted into a public company in 2002,
and in 2003 distribution was unbundled with
the intention of creating a series of regional
distribution companies. This policy failed and
in 2011 distribution was handed back to the
governments Department of Energy.
In Zimbabwe, the national utility was
unbundled to create a generating company
and a transmission and distribution entity.
However, this has led to a cyclical problem of
debt because the transmission and distribution
frm cannot collect money effciently from its
customers and so cannot pay the generating
company for the power it supplies, so both
have serious debt burdens. From an open
market perspective, restructuring has yet to
have a signifcant impact in the region.
Hand in hand with unbundling, most of the
countries have also created energy regulators
that license operators across the market,
establish and police standards and set tariffs.
In a fully market-driven electricity model, such
regulators would be autonomous but in many
cases they are still overseen by a ministry and
their independence is questionable.
While there are one or two independent
system operators there are as yet no open
electricity markets similar to those found in
many developed countries. The national utility
or national transmission system operator is
essnetially the market, buying and selling power
nationally, as well as importing and exporting.
The economic strength of the southern
African nations varies but all are trying to lure
independent power producers to their markets,
with limited success. Even in South Africa,
95 per cent of power is generated by the
national utility. In many cases the regulatory
structures are not robust enough to create
the certainty needed by foreign investors.
Tariff structures can also cause problems,
particularly where, as is still the case in some
countries, the tariff does not cover the cost
of production and delivery. Tariffs have been
rising across the region and this is helping to
improve the economics of generation and
delivery but reforms are not complete.
Capacity needs to double
The generation of electricity in southern
Africa is based on three main sources, coal,
hydropower and liquid fuels such as diesel
or other distillates. There is very little natural
gas used for power generation. In most
cases hydro and coal plants supply power to
national grids and, where connected, to SAPP.
Diesel generation is more usually used for off-
grid generation although it also fnds use for
peak power generation in some countries.
However the cost of liquid fuel usually
makes this an expensive option. Natural gas
generation based on gas turbines is rare
with the only signifcant capacity of this type
in Angola where natural gas is available.
Capacity is planned in Mozambique too.
In terms of installed capacity, South Africa
is dominant with 44,170 MW of generating
capacity or close to 84 per cent of the total
capacity of 52,582 MW in the region. The
next largest capacity is found in Zimbabwe,
2045 MW. However much of this is aging
and availability is much lower. Zambia with
1812 MW and Angola with 1515 MW are the
only other countries with more than 1000 MW
of generating capacity available. At the other
end of the scale, Lesotho and Swaziland have
only 72 MW of generating capacity each.
Most of the countries of southern Africa
are members of SAPP through their national
utilities. The two island nations, Madagascar
and Mauritius, are not members because
of their geographic locations. Meanwhile,
Malawi, which is a member, is not, nevertheless,
connected into the regional grid operated by
SAPP. This means it cannot trade large volumes
of power with neighbouring countries as the
other nine can. However, small-scale trading
takes place at borders where isolated rural
communities in one country are supplied with
electricity from a neighbouring community
in another country that is connected to the
national grid of that country. This takes place
across the Malawi border, as well as elsewhere.
Across the region, coal provides the largest
tranche of generating capacity, 40,359 MW.
This is virtually all a result of the coal in South
Africa, where most of the regions coal plants
are located. There is some coal capacity in
Zimbabwe but elsewhere there is little, while
hydropower provides a further 6701 MW.
The other major source of generating
capacity is diesel generators burning liquid
fuels of one type or another. They can be
found all across the region, often supplying
power to isolated grids. Many of these plants
are old and ineffcient. Diesel fuel is expensive
and it would often be economical to replace
or supplement these diesel plants with
solar or wind generation. Financing such
development is expensive and that has
hindered wide spread introduction of these
renewable technologies.
Other renewable sources are present,
but capacities are small. There are small
hydro plants, some solar PV installations
and plants burning biomass to be found in
0
250
500
1000
30,000
35,000
40,000
45,000
Utility
ENE,
Angola
BPC,
Botswana
LEC,
Lesotho
JIRAMA,
Madagascar
ESCOM,
Malawi
CEB,
Mauritius
EDM,
Mozambique
NamPower,
Namibia
Eskom,
South Africa
SEC,
Swaziland
ZESCO,
Zambia
ZESA,
Zimbabwe
2000
Figure 1: National generating capacities in Southern Africa Source: Power Generation Research
1402pei_12 12 2/12/14 3:20 PM
1402pei_13 13 2/12/14 3:20 PM
www.PowerEngineeringInt.com Power Engineering International February 2014
Southern Africa
14
many countries but they are generally not
connected to the grid so their capacities often
go unrecorded. One of the largest of these
sources is plants burning sugarcane bagasse
and wood waste, usually installed at industrial
sites and providing energy for the industry.
There may be as much as 200300 MW of
such capacity in southern Africa.
Across the region, the peak demand is
around 45,000 MW. An installed capacity of
around 53,000 MW would suggest a regional
margin of 15 per cent but availability in several
countries is low and the real margin is much
smaller. In addition, in many countries peak
demand is suppressed by the infrastructure so
that in practice margins are probably negative.
The SAPP estimated the actual suppressed
peak demand across its region to be close to
54,000 MW in 2012; this does not refect
the numbers that are unable to buy power
because they have no grid access.
Annual generation in the region was
around 50,000 GWh in 2012. Of this, more than
70 per cent was produced by coal plants and
between 15 per cent and 20 per cent by hydro
plants. Across the SAPP region, less than 10 per
cent of power was provided by other sources.
Consumption patterns in the countries of
southern Africa vary from nation to nation. In the
majority of the countries it is only major urban
locations and manufacturing centres that are
connected to a national supply system. Rural
consumption is therefore extremely low. South
Africa has the highest rural rate of connection,
at 55 per cent. Elsewhere it is often below
10 per cent and can be less than 5 per cent.
Many of the rural communities without power
are extremely poor and rural electrifcation is a
vital development issue.
Consumption by different sectors varies
from nation to nation. Major industrial centres
generally have privileged supplies since they
are important for the economic well-being
of the nations. Some, such as the Mozal
aluminium smelter in Mozambique has a
dedicated power supply from South Africa.
However, with tariffs often subsidised, domestic
consumption can account for a high
proportion of total usage. In some countries,
commercial agriculture is vital to the economy
and this will account for high percentage of
consumption too.
Tariffs in the countries of southern Africa
are often low too low in many cases to meet
the cost of production and delivery. The lowest
average national tariffs in the region are
$0.057/kWh in Zambia and $0.059/kWh in
Lesotho, with Angola at $0.060/kWh. Both
Zambia and Lesotho have established hydro
plants that account for a high proportion of
electricity production and this is relatively cheap.
In Angola, hydro is also an important source of
electricity and the income from its oil also helps
the government support tariffs, keeping them low.
In other countries, particularly those that
rely on fossil fuels for their energy, tariffs tend
to be higher. However, the highest tariffs in the
region are found in the two island nations,
Madagascar ($0.140/kWh) and Mauritius
($0.186/kWh). Both rely heavily on fossil fuel for
their power and the fuel in both cases must
be imported, pushing costs high. Swaziland
also has a high average tariff of $0.115/kWh.
The country has very little capacity of its own
and must import most of its power from South
Africa and Mozambique.
All the countries of southern Africa need
additional generating capacity and to
extend and strengthen their transmission
and distribution systems. However, most are
hampered by small economies that do not
provide funds to invest in new infrastructure.
Where there is reasonable political stability,
countries can attract both donor agency
investment and foreign private investment to
help build stronger infrastructure. But several
countries in the region suffer from poor
governance and weak democratic structures
that make securing outside fnance diffcult.
Peak demand on the SAPP grid in 2012 was
around 51,000 MW. SAPP forecasts demand
rising to 55,000 MW by 2015, 61,000 MW by
2020 and just under 67,000 MW by 2025.
While this only amounts to 30 per cent
growth in 15 years, the fact that capacity can
barely meet existing demand implies installed
capacity across the region will probably need
to at least double over the period if even this
level of growth is to be met. If economies
improve and electrifcation spreads, demand
could potentially rise much higher.
Opportunities: Much to play for
The nations in southern Africa are all ambitious
to improve their electricity infrastructures
as a means of creating better conditions
for their people and for their economies to
expand. All have strategies in place some
over-ambitious and there are a range of
potential projects seeking investment. They
include major hydro schemes, natural gas-
fred combined-cycle plants, coal plants, wind,
solar and biomass developments, and even
new nuclear capacity.
Major transmission lines and national
interconnections are needed to boost the
capacity to trade power across the region
and in every country there is a need for a
major rural electrifcation programme to
enable isolated communities to gain access
to power. Not all of these will be able to attract
funding today but there are many that do
offer a sound basis for investment.
Africa remains the most under-developed
continent of the world but it is becoming
a focus for attention and major trading
nations such as the US and China are
already competing for markets and infuence.
Meanwhile, major donor agencies such as the
United Nations are seeking ways to enhance
and improve the lives of people across Africa.
Electricity supply will form a key part element
of these programmes. For all companies and
organizations with interests in the electricity
sector there is much to play for.
Power Generation Research in partnership
with PennWell are publishing in depth surveys
of all the countries of southern Africa. These
will be available as individual country profles
and as a single regional report, Electricity in
Southern Africa. For more information, visit
http://ogjresearch.stores.yahoo.net/power-
generation-research-company.html.
i
Country
Average tariff
($/kWh)
Angola 0.060
Botswana 0.070
Lesotho 0.059
Madagascar 0.140
Malawi 0.068
Mauritius 0.186
Mozambique 0.075
Namibia 0.086
South Africa 0.087
Swaziland 0.115
Tanzania 0.13
Zambia 0.057
Zimbabwe 0.098
Table 2: Average tariffs in the countries of
Southern Africa (note: DRC tariff unavailable)
Source: Power Generation Research
1402pei_14 14 2/12/14 3:20 PM

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1402pei_15 15 2/12/14 3:20 PM
T
he global energy market is shifting
at an unprecedented rate and
this change is being driven by
renewable generation in the form
of wind and solar photovoltaic.
Forecasts for the total installed
wind generation in 2020 vary from 586 GW to
1000 GW, while predictions for solar PV in 2020
vary widely from 330 GW to 1000 GW.
Calculating the cost price of a unit of
electrical energy was once straightforward.
The metric still generally used is the levelised
cost of electricity (LCOE) which sums the total
capital cost (CAPEX) and lifetime operating
costs (OPEX) including fuel inputs, taking into
account the fnancing costs of both. That
number is then divided by the lifetime energy
output, to give a cost per unit energy.
Unfortunately, the output of renewable
assets cannot be matched to suit demand.
As a result, renewable electricity, available at
zero marginal cost, must be rejected from the
system when there is a surplus.
Conversely, expensive gas peaking plant
must be used to provide electricity, while
weather conditions do not allow for demand
to be covered by intermittent renewables. That
makes the amount of electricity which each
source produces or rather, the amount of
electricity that can be sold from each source
rather unpredictable.
That is the value of storage: it brings the
amount of electricity available to the system
back under human control. The Californian
regulator is convinced and is mandating that
utilities deploy 1.3 GW of electricity storage
by 2020. However, for everyone to agree, the
value must be greater than the cost by a clear
margin. The cost itself is far more challenging
to calculate than is usually appreciated.
One method is simply to convert the LCOE
to what is known as LCOS the levelised cost
of storage. That provides the cost of storing
electricity including the CAPEX, OPEX and also
the cost in electricity resulting from effciency
losses in the storage system. To get a number
comparable with the competitor of the
storage concept gas peaking also requires
that we add the cost of the input electricity
to the LCOS. So the really revealing metric is
levelised cost of electricity from storage, or
With ever-greater
renewable energy
integration on our grids,
understanding the way
the cost of energy storage
works will help lift the
fog that obscures the
economics behind the
concept, argues
James Macnaghten.
The balancing act of
electricity storage?
Energy storage: Its true cost
Energy storage is a key enabling technology in stabilizing our grids,
but uncertainty over its viability persists
Credit: National Grid
1402pei_16 16 2/12/14 3:20 PM
LCOE-S - see boxed formula.
LCOE-S: A simple calculation?
A 6kWh battery bank, at a cost of $1000 per kWh, incurs a capital cost
of $6000. That covers the load shifting requirement of one household
equipped with rooftop PV panels. A commercial battery system will of
course provide storage space for hundreds of such households.
With a weighted average cost of capital (WACC) of 12 per cent, a
levelised cost of electricity (LCOE) from the solar panels of 10 per kWh,
a system cycling once a day for 13 years, an effciency of 85 per cent
and negligible maintenance costs, the boxed formula gives us a LCOE-S
of 85 per kWh.
We have assumed here that the size of the storage technology can
be matched exactly to the technical requirements. But we actually
need to push our capital cost up to around $10,000. This is because
almost all batteries have inherent depth-of-discharge limitations: some
of their chemical potential energy must remain potential because if it
were used it would cause permanent damage to the electrodes. Even if
that depth-of-discharge limit is not breached, getting persistently close
to it will reduce the number of charge-discharge cycles over which the
system can operate, so it might easily not last 13 years.
It does not take an energy economist to realize that without any kind
of subsidy the system described above, though it may save the whole
electricity system money by peak shaving, does not make fnancial sense
when peak electricity prices are around 4-5 per kWh as in Germany. This
example, along with the boxed formula allow us to identify the three key
variables of the LCOE-S: CAPEX, cycle life and effciency. Some indicative
technology-specifc numbers are included in Table 1.
Customers looking for the optimal electricity storage system are faced
Technology
Charge-
discharge
cycle life
Calendar
life
(years)
Effciency
(%)
Pumped hydro 80 75
Underground
compressed air energy
storage(CAES)
25 6070
Flywheels Several million 15 8095
Sodium-sulphur batteries 500010,000 1520 7580
Flow batteries >10,000 1525 6070
Lead-acid batteries 5002000 515* 7580
Lithium-ion batteries 10005000 520* 8090
Pumped heat 100,000 20 75
Table 1: Length-of-life data for various storage technologies
Source: Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Systems
(ISETA-RWTH), Aachen
*Depends on temperature of operation and state of discharge
Application Cycles a year
Power
intensive
Energy
intensive
Load shifting 365 No Yes
Reserve services 730 Yes Yes
Frequency regulation 22004000 Yes No
Table 2: Indicating which key variable will have the biggest impact on the
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with a wide range of different technologies
entering the market. Many of the facts and
fgures are changing rapidly, simply not known,
taken out of context or else displayed in a
misleading manner. It is common for storage
manufacturers to describe their CAPEX costs in
per kW or per kWh terms, as with our example
of a residential battery system. However, many
storage technologies have separate power
and energy costs, so a $/kWh or $/kW number
is useless on its own. Consequently, we believe
that a graph showing $/kWh for different
numbers of hours is the best way to show the
CAPEX cost of storage, as in Figure 1. Such a
graph, combined with the cycle life, allows
for a much more accurate assessment of the
cost of a system for different applications.
An example of an accurate but misleading
statement might be that a certain battery
costs $250/kWh and can achieve 5000 cycles.
The CAPEX might assume 100 per cent depth
of discharge, but the cycle life is reduced to
1000 cycles. The same battery might deliver
5000 cycles if only 10 per cent of the depth
of discharge is used, but now the real CAPEX
is $2500/kWh (since it is only possible to use
10 per cent of the storage).
There is also a vast amount of conficting
information online. For fywheels you might
see a fgure of $3500/kW listed as the cost
for an installation. However, you would have
to dig deeper to establish that this is for only
15 minutes of storage and the cost per kWh is
actually much higher at $14,000/kWh. What
is the correct number with which to budget?
There is also variation for established
technologies, like pumped hydro, where the
costs will vary from site to site depending upon
local geography. There is no easy answer to
this problem and the best advice is to ask
detailed questions from the supplier to ensure
you understand the context of any fgures.
Application is king
There exists a variety of storage technologies
to suit various commercial applications, each
with different advantages and limitations. Table
2 shows examples of different applications,
and indicates which of the three key variables
will have the most signifcant impact on the
LCOE-S calculation.
A power-intensive application requires a
signifcant amount of power to be provided
at short notice, while an energy-intensive
application requires a given amount of power
Input
electricity
Effciency
losses
CAPEX,
including
fnancing
OPEX Total
Pumped hydro 10 3.3 3.4 0.8 17.6
Li-ion batteries 10 1.8 73.4 0.1 85.2
Pumped heat 10 3.3 3.7 0.5 17.5
Flow batteries 10 6.7 15.1 1 32.8
Table 3: Cost components of LCOE-S of a commercial storage system based on various
technologies and levels of effciency. All numbers in per kWh.
Source: ISETA-RWTH; Krajacic et al., 2012;
Figure 1: CAPEX per kWh of various technologies at different discharge time requirements. Note that
this does not include any replacement costs for degraded assets.
Source: Krajacic et al., 2012 ; Arup , n.d. ; ISETA-RWTH
Indicative CAPEX of various technologies ($/kWh)
1000
9000
8000
7000
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Hours
Pumped Hydro
(120MW)
Li-ion
(30MW)
Flywheel
(30MW)
Pumped heat
(30MW)
0
10
20
30
90
60
70
80
40
50
Pumped hydro Li-ion battery Pumped heat Flow battery
OPEX
Input electricity
CAPEX including
fnancing
Effciency losses
Diesel LCOE
Components of LCOEs for different technologies (US)
Figure 2: Representation of the cost breakdown of the LCOE-S with an input electricity price of 10/kWh.
Source: Institute for Power Electronics and Electrical Systems (ISETA-RWTH), Aachen; Krajacic et al., 2012;
1402pei_18 18 2/12/14 3:20 PM
www.PowerEngineeringInt.com 19
to be generated over a period of hours. Load
shifting requires high effciency because
the cost of the fuel off-peak electricity is
a key driver of the cost of the electricity that
exits the store. The more energy is lost during
the cycle, the more it costs to cover the fnal
energy requirement from the store. Effciency
becomes progressively more important the
higher the fuel cost, just as is the case for
conventional generating technologies.
That is important. A key high-value
application for storage in the near term is in
reducing the amount of diesel generation
required in remote areas by adding a
combination of renewable generation and
electricity storage. The lower the effciency of
the technology and the higher the input price
of electricity, the more stringent the cost target
becomes (see Figure 2 and Table 3). The
normal cost of diesel generation is 2535/
kWh, depending on the location.
Reserve services ensure that the grid can
adapt to any unexpected events or power
shortfalls that might occur when, for example,
a 600 MW generator trips off. Depending
upon the exact service being supplied there
may be a requirement for low power ($/
kW) costs for something like Fast Reserve;
alternatively, low energy costs ($/kWh) might
be needed where several hours of generation
are required, that is, where the requirement
is for Short Term Operating Reserve. For most
applications in this area, there is likely to be a
requirement for several hours of power.
In the state of New York, remuneration is now
available for providing power or absorbing
it during short-term power variations to help
maintain the system frequency. This is an
application that is dominated by the power
cost and the systems cycle life. It might see
as many as 4000 cycles per annum, which
would mean 80,000 cycles in a 20year life.
For comparison a pumped storage plant
might only see 5000 cycles in 20 years. Both
fywheels and lithium-ion batteries have been
installed for this application. A very high $-per-
kWh CAPEX is affordable in this application
because the LCOE-S is still kept low by the very
high number of cycles per annum.
Next steps
The LCOE-S needs to be lower than the LCOE
of fexible generation like gas peaking and
diesel gensets. But it is worth remembering that
gas and renewables are two sides of the same
coin. Storage itself can store electricity from gas
plant just as easily as it can store intermittent
renewable electricity. No matter where the input
comes from, storage reduces the amount of
generating capacity that any system requires.
It is time to start thinking seriously about
how individual storage technologies can
serve the applications described above
and how much it will cost for them to do so.
That means assigning technology-specifc
numbers to the three key variables of storage
(CAPEX, effciency and cycle life) and working
out how much the input electricity will have
to cost to make each technology competitive
with fexible conventional generation for a
given application.
Abolishing subsidies will not stop the
massive roll-out of renewables. In this rapidly
developing situation storage has a great deal
to offer. But only a proper understanding of the
way the cost of storage works will lift the fog that
obscures the economics behind the concept.
James Macnaghten is chief executive of
Isentropic Limited. For more imformation, visit
www.isentropic.co.uk.
i
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1402pei_19 19 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Capturing carbon dioxide from thermal plant emissions and, ideally, putting it to use
could offer an economical route to a low-carbon economy
Credit: Drax
Valve and actuator technology
Current market demands
for greater fexibility and
effciency mean that
operators of conventional
power plants have to
operate their feets in
a more cyclic manner,
as well as at higher
temperatures and
pressures. Paul Breeze
explores how these
changing operating
conditions impact on
critical components, such
as valves and actuators.
Exploring the
start of the art
T
he ability to control a power plant,
be it natural gas-fred, combined-
cycle, coal-fred boiler, solar
thermal array, or even a wind
turbine will depend on the reliable
functioning of valves and the
actuators used to operate those valves.
These components come in a range
of types and sizes and the operations they
perform are equally varied. Without them the
management of modern power plants would
be impossible. Today, the demands on these
vital components are becoming ever greater.
Over the past 2030 years the level of
control required of all types of plants has
increased greatly. This is partly a result of
changes in the market structure such as the
widespread privatization of power generation
in Europe and elsewhere -- when plants
stopped making electricity and started
manufacturing pounds, shillings and pence,
as one industry expert wryly observed -- and
partly the changing nature of the power
supply system, with increasingly large volumes
of renewable energy being fed into grid
systems that are operated within much lower
tolerances than in the past to cater for the
increasingly large base of sensitive electronic
equipment that underpins modern life.
These changes have led to a need for
more frequent and precise control of plants,
an evolutionary process that has affected all
aspects of plant component design including
that of valves and actuators.
Ian Elliot, sales manager at Rotork Site
Services in the UK, recalls the frst of these
changes taking place in the early 1990s when
the UK industry was privatized. The private
sector companies that took over plants
demanded lower manning levels so valve
operations that might have been carried out
manually had to be automated. Meanwhile
400 MW coal-fred baseload plants that had
previously started and shut down once a year
suddenly started two shifting, that is coming
on line early in the day to meet morning
demand, shutting down and then coming on
again in the evening. As a consequence, Elliot
notes, actuators had to move twice each day
instead of twice each year.
Step-change in procedures
With this change in duty cycle, both valves
and their actuators suddenly had to be much
more reliable.
One of Rotorks responses was to redesign
its actuators to reduce the number of moving
parts. Today the company relies increasingly
on components such as Hall-effect sensors
and piezoelectric sensors where in the past
it would have relied on electro-mechanical
components. Changes of this type have been
replicated across the industry.
Privatization, where it happened, led to a
step-change in operating procedures. Since
then there has been an even greater shift
in the power generation landscape but its
introduction has been more gradual. The
Facilities such as Germanys high-effciency Ulrich Hartmann
are driving valve and actuator innovation
Credit: Siemens
1402pei_20 20 2/12/14 3:20 PM
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1402pei_21 21 2/12/14 3:20 PM
result is that, 20 years on, two-shifting is more
likely to be 20-shifting, or even continuous-
shifting. This is because the power networks in
many regions have to manage larger volumes
of renewables, primarily from wind and solar
photovoltaic plants. Both of these sources are
by their nature intermittent and in order to keep
the grid in balance, it is necessary to have
alternative generating stations in readiness to
step in if the renewable output falls. The same
plants must be capable of backing down,
when renewable output increases.
This grid support role can be managed with
hydropower and energy storage plants but
often they are not available and then much of
the responsibility falls onto conventional fossil
fuel plants, particularly gas-fred combined-
cycle, but also some modern coal plants.
These plants are required to be able to start
and stop frequently and ramp their output
up and down often and rapidly. Achieving
this requires precise control of the plant
operating conditions and those conditions
are maintained using valves that modulate
the fows in all critical parts of a plant.
A model to meet all demands
For valve and actuator manufacturers, these
new operating conditions have changed the
demands placed on their products in two
important ways.
The frst is that the valves and actuators
are required to operate even more frequently
than before. The second, highlighted by Udo
Hess, power market sales manager at AUMA
Riester, is that faster startups and faster output
ramping mean that valves and actuators
must move more quickly than before. To meet
these conditions, manufacturers have been
forced to adapt their designs.
Some valves, such as ball and butterfy, are
designed to be either open or shut. These are
often used as fail-safe on/off valves. Others
are designed so they can be partly open,
their position controlled with varying degrees
of precision. This allows for modulation of the
fuid fow through the valve. Controlling both
types of valve may involve a linear motion
or a rotary motion, and this is provided by
an actuator.
Actuators are designed for specifc valve
types and for particular duties. Some provide
a linear force to open and shut a linear valve.
Others generate a rotary force. And as with
valves, there are different types of actuator.
Many modern actuators are electro-
mechanical, relying on electrical power to
operate. Others are hydraulic or pneumatic.
Each has its advantages and disadvantages.
Valves and actuators for use in demanding
environments such as power plants are
divided into found standard classes -- A, B
C, and D -- depending on the type of duty
they perform.
Class A is an on/off actuator for a valve
that is either open or closed, normally quarter-
turn valves such as butterfy or ball. A class
A valve only operates infrequently. Class B is
a valve that can be shut, part-open or fully
open, and the actuator will have a position
sensor to provide feedback for a power plant
control system, but will again only operate
infrequently. A class C valve and actuator
can provide very frequent operation and
modulation, while class D valves are required
to be able to operate continuously.
In the past, traditional coal plants would
have required very few higher class valves
but modern coal and gas plants need
many more class C and D modulating valves
and actuators.
Moreover, specifcations for the latter
are rising so that, for example, AUMA has
increased the frequency of starts supported
by its class C actuators from 1200/h to 1500/h.
While valves and actuators must operate
more frequently, power plant operators do
not want to be forced to maintain them
any more frequently that previously. So both
components must be more rugged and
reliable. The actuators often have to generate
more force or torque than before and move
more quickly than before too. All of this puts
them under much greater stress.
And there is more: when valves and
actuators are operated they generate heat.
The more frequently they operate, the hotter
they get.
With a low-frequency duty cycle the
actuator has a chance to cool down
between operations. In modern power plants
with high-frequency duty cycle, the actuators,
in contrast, have little opportunity to cool,
especially at an ambient temperature of up
to 120C. That places extreme demands on all
the components that make up the actuator.
Higher effciency, greater precision
Rising temperature is not only a matter of
frequency of operation. The temperatures and
pressures inside conventional fossil fuel plants
are becoming more elevated in the quest to
achieve higher effciency and this means the
components operating in these more extreme
environments must be able to withstand
higher temperatures and pressures.
Moreover, conventional plants are getting
bigger. In 800 MW to 1000 MW power plants
you can fnd 3-metre diameter butterfy valves.
Previously this size was only found in water
systems, Hess says. The torque required to
shut or open these valves can be as high as
675,000 Nm.
With large valves, actuators must be
bigger and travel further. Yet at the same
time actuators have to be more precise
and sensitive. For US company Automation
Technology Inc (ATI) this means that the
mechanical parts have to be machined
more precisely, as its chief executive Cooper
Etheridge explains.
Greater precision means that parts match
more perfectly and friction is reduced while
maintaining smaller tolerances so that more
precise control is possible. Low friction is
important because excessive friction can
lead to jumpy movement.
For ATIs speciality, linear actuators, this
must be achieved while providing faster and
larger movements and greater force. Other
actuator manufacturers face similar problems.
Valve design modifcations
Valve manufacturers also have to cope with
Separate wall brackets ensure continued performance in demanding environments
Credit: AUMA
1402pei_22 22 2/12/14 3:20 PM
1402pei_23 23 2/12/14 3:20 PM
a demand for larger components that are at the same time more precise
and can operate under more stressful conditions. If anything, the conditions
faced by valves are more extreme since they can be controlling the steam or
air fows in coal and gas-fred plants where temperatures and pressures are at
their highest.
And while the most stressful conditions are in new plants, the problems can
be just as great in older plants where the valves were not originally designed
for the sort of duty cycle now expected of them. This means expensive reftting
of newer and more capable components.
Not only is more demanded of each component, but power plant
companies are also demanding that their valve suppliers prove their valves
will stand up to the rigors of this new duty. This means producing lifetime
calculations to show how the component will perform over 25 years when the
plant might start up and shut down 50,000 times. This has meant introducing
advanced modelling and testing techniques.
The issue with valves is often one of materials and design. In the past,
valves were designed for baseload operations and now when subjected to
this new type of operational duty will often start to develop cracks and key
stress points.
This problem is exacerbated not only by the increased number of cycles
that the valve goes through, but by the increased thermal gradients that it
is subjected too as the ramp rate increases. It is not only the frequency of
cycling but also the speed of temperature change, says Martin-Jan Strebe,
global product manager for control valves at Pentair.
The solution is to redesign valves, removing all the sharp corners where
stress fractures often start and limiting the changes in thickness of the metal
used to fabricate the valve as far as this is possible.
Careful redesign will reduce the potential for stresses to build up in the
component. In addition, manufacturers are having to use new materials to
replace traditional steels. To achieve better high-temperature performance
they are exploring the use of nickel-based alloys similar to those developed
and used in gas turbines, where similar -- if even more extreme -- operating
conditions exist.
Where steel continues to be used, the demand on steel alloys has become
greater. F91 is a standard stainless steel used in valve and pipe manufacturing.
However the durability of the material can be weakened by small quantities
of aluminium in the alloy. Therefore valve makers are demanding special
batches of F91 with reduced aluminium content.
Another change taking place is the way in which valves are fabricated.
Valves can be cast or forged, but today forged valves are preferred in high
pressure systems, another change brought about by the extreme conditions
under which they are required to operate. The industry is grappling with
cast versus forged, and which is most suitable for todays conditions, says
Arvo Eilau, global marketing manager of Natural Gas and Renewable Power
at Pentair.
Meanwhile, German company PS Automation is exploring the use of
plastics. Injection-moulded plastic components can be very accurate,
according to Michal Kral-Serrato, feld sales manager.
However, any plastic component needs to be carefully load-tested to
ensure it can meet the demands imposed on it. The company introduced its
frst plastic components around two years ago.
Risk management, an integral part of plant operation
A further key issue for both actuator and valve manufacturers is to control the
risk associated with their products. Part of the driver behind this is to achieve
greater plant safety but beyond that, risk management is becoming an
HIGH PERFORMANCE
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1402pei_24 24 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Customized special control valves
For the energy producing and consuming industry
WELLAND & TUXHORNAG
A R M A T U R E N - U N D M A S C H I N E N F A B R I K
Gtersloher Strae 257 | D-33649 Bielefeld | Tel. +49 (0)521 9418-0 | Fax. +49 (0)521 9418-170, -156 | www.welland-tuxhorn.de | info@welland-tuxhorn.de
HP-, IP- and LP-
turbinebypasssystems
turbine emergency stop valves
turbine control valves
steam conditioning valves
feedwater control valves
minimum flow control valves
cooling water injection valves
boiler start up valves
boiler blow down valves
desuperheater valves
hydraulic actuating systems
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
integral part of modern plant operation and
management.
At its most basic the issue means that
investors, owners and operators want a
number that tells them the level of risk
associated with each power plant.
In order to gauge risk for each power
plant component, an assessor needs to
know its associated risk level -- how likely is it
to fail, and in what way will it fail? To meet this
requirement, manufacturers are increasingly
asked to provide components that are rated
against the standard Safety Integrity Level (SIL)
measure of performance. Typically, valve and
actuator manufacturers seek to achieve SIL
level 3 or above for components that are used
in power plants.
As ATIs Etheridge explains, obtaining a SIL
rating means allowing an outside assessor to
examine a component and explore all the
ways it can fail. Simplicity in this case can be
absolutely key.
For example, many of ATIs actuators
contain a spring, a simple fail-safe component
that will ensure a valve moves into its fail-safe
position if the actuator fails in any way. A
spring is a very simple device, Etheridge says.
For safety, the simpler the component, the
safer and more reliable it is.
Another way of increasing security
is to constantly monitor and record the
operation of valves and actuators. Rotork uses
monitoring to record the operation of its valves
and actuators over their operational lifetime,
and then compare the daily performance
with the baseline performance established
when the unit was new. By comparing original
and current performance it is possible to
detect when problems such as wear or valve
sticking begin to arise, allowing predictive
maintenance to be carried out before the unit
fails. The same monitoring and logging system
will also record the number of operations
and compare these to the expected lifetime
number, another way of gauging the status of
the component.
At the same time, the digital revolution is
bringing changes that affect all aspects of
valves and actuators. Manufacturers need to
provide standardized digital interfaces to all
their components so they can be integrated
into modern control systems. PS Automation is
using software in its controllers to customize its
actuators for different applications.
New opportunities with renewables
While the biggest power sector market for
valves and actuators remains conventional
plants, for some companies the nuclear
market is important, while a new but growing
sector is renewables and this is likely
to become a more important market in
the future.
As an example of this, Young & Franklin has
recently designed a single-cylinder operated
parabolic trough actuator for concentrated
solar plants. As company marketing specialist
Jason Dyer points out, this is opening new
design and manufacturing opportunities for
both new and established companies.
Rotork has also been supplying valves to
solar thermal plants where they are used to
control the temperature of the fuid in the heat
transfer circuit to ensure it is maintained within
operational limits. Flow rate is increased when
the solar input is high and reduced as the
heat input falls.
There are around two actuators for each
megawatt of solar thermal generating
capacity. In a conventional fossil fuel plant, the
number is generally around one quarter the
number, so this is potentially a large market.
1402pei_25 25 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Another section of the solar thermal market where
specialist valves are needed is to manage fows in plants
that use molten salt, either as the heat collection fuid or for
energy storage, or for both.
The mixture of molten nitrates that is often used in
these plants is generally maintained at between 300C
and 400C. This is a hostile and corrosive environment and
requires valves that are particularly corrosion resistant.
Solar thermal plants are akin to conventional thermal
plants in concept, even if the energy source is different, so
it is not surprising to fnd that they make extensive use of
valves and actuators.
However, even wind turbines need these components
too. One particular application is within the hydraulic
control system that operates the blade pitching for speed
control.
Most modern turbines have moveable blades or blade
sections that are used to control rotational speed as the
wind speed changes. These may also have to perform a
critical fail-safe function, shutting down the turbine if wind
speeds become too high. As turbine technology advances,
so the need for valves and actuators here is likely to
increase too.
Across the power sector, the changes that are taking
place are challenging manufacturers of valves and
actuators to fnd new solutions to old problems.
Valves and actuators are needed to perform more
complex operations, but at the same time they need to be
simpler to satisfy risk requirements.
Meanwhile, new markets are arising that require
different solutions, so the challenges are accompanied
by a range of opportunities. Companies across the board
are responding.
i
The industry is grappling with cast versus forged valve design,
and which is most suitable for todays conditions
Credit: Pentair
COMPANY COUNTRY WEB
Arca Germany www.arca.de/
ARI International Germany www.arivalves.com/
AUMA Riester GmbH & Company KG Germany www.auma.com
Automation Technology Incorporated (ATI) USA www.automationtechnologiesinc.com/
BBK Fluid Control Company Limited China www.bbkval.com
BFS Valve China www.bfsvalve.com
Bomafa Germany www.bomafa.com
Bray International USA www.bray.com
China Valve Corporation China www.cvalve.com/
Crane Fluid Handling Germany www.cranefowsolutions.com/.
Crotti Fortunato Snc Italy www.crottivalvole.it
De Tomi Srl Italy www.detomi.com
EMICO, Eayuan Metal Industrial Company Limited Taiwan, ROC www.emico.com.tw/
Eclipse Valves & Fittings Limited New Zealand www.eclipsevalves.com/
EFCO Maschinenbau GmbH Germany www.efco-dueren.com/
Emerson UK www.emersonprocess.com/
Emme Technology Srl Italy www.emmetech.com/
emmetech Uk www.kromschroeder.de
ERIKS UK www.eriks.co.uk
Europiping SpA Italy www.europiping.com/
Famat Switzerland www.famat.com/
Flowrox Finland www.fowrox.com/
Flowserve USA www.fowserve.com
Fluonics Company Limited South Korea www.fuonics.com
Fujian Feida Valve Company Limited China www.feidavalve.com/en/
Glaunach GmbH Austria www.glaunach.com
Goodwin International Limited UK www.goodwin.co.uk/
Haitima Corporation Taiwan, ROC www.haitima.com.tw/
Ham-Let Isreal www.ham-let.com/
Hanwel Netherlands www.ham-let.com/
HORA, Holter Regelarmaturen GmbH Germany www.hora.de/
James Walker UK www.jameswalker.biz
J-Peco Engineering Supervision & Consulting
Company Limited China www.j-peco.com/
KSB AG Germany www.ksb.com
Khme Armaturen GmbH Germany www.kuehme.de/
Leser GmbH Germany www.leser.com/
Metso Automation Finland www.metso.com
Nantong Powerstation Valve Company China www.ntdzfm.com/
Nippon Pillar Packing Company Limited Japan www.pillar.co.jp/
NOREVA GmbH Germany www.noreva.de/
NSSL Limited India www.nsslindia.com/
OHL Gutermuth Industrial Valves GmbH Germany www.ohl-gutermuth.de/
Orbinox Spain www.orbinox.com
Oviko Valve Compnay Limited China www.ovikovalve.com/
Peach Valve (BAVCOS) South Korea www.peachvalve.com/
Pekos Valves SA Spain www.pekos.es/
Pentair Valves & Control Switzerland http://valves.pentair.com/valves/
PS Automation GmbH Germany www.ps-automation.com/
Ramn Trading AB Sweden http://ramen.se/
Regeltechnik Kornwestheim GmbH Germany www.rtk.de/en
Rf Valves Finland www.rfvalve.com
Rotork Controls Limited UK www.rotork.com/en/
SAMSON AG Germany www.samson.de
Sanbora Valve Compnay Limited China www.chsbr.com/
Schroeder Valves GmbH Germany www.schroeder-valves.com/
Sealand Engineering UK www.sealandengineering.co.uk/
Shree Hans Alloys Limited India www.hansalloys.com
SIAD Macchine Impianti SpA Italy www.siadmi.com
SIPOS Aktorik GmbH Germany www.sipos.de/
SKVAL Company Limited China www.skval.com/
Spirax Sarco UK www.spiraxsarco.com/
Suzhou Viza Valve Company Limited China www.vizavalve.com/
Tiangong Valve Group Company Limited China www.tgvalve.com
Transmark DRW Germany www.drw-armaturen.de
VAG Armaturen GmbH Germany www.vag-armaturen.com/
Valsteam ADCA Engineering SA Portugal www.valsteam.com/
Value Valves Company Limited Taiwan, ROC www.valuevalves.com/
Valves of Norway Norway www.norskeventiler.no/
Valvitalia Italy www.valvitalia.com/
Virgo Europe SpA Italy www.virgoengineers.com/
Weidouli Valves Company Limited China www.weidouli.com
WEIR UK www.weir.co.uk
Young & Franklin USA www.yf.com/
Zwick Armaturen GmbH Germany www.zwick-gmbh.de/
A selection of valve and actuator manufacturers serving the global power
generation sector
1402pei_26 26 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Propriedade e produo de:

Owned & produced by:
Mdia Patrocinadores:
Media Sponsors:
21- 23 DE OUTUBRO DE 2014
21- 23 OCTOBER 2014
S O PAULO, B RA S I L / T RA NS A ME RI CA E X P O CE NT E R
WWW. P OWE RB RA S I L E VE NT S. COM
1402pei_27 27 2/12/14 3:20 PM
Capturing carbon dioxide from thermal plant emissions and, ideally, putting it to use
could offer an economical route to a low-carbon economy
Credit: Drax
Low-carbon research
T
his year the European Commission
(EC) has ring-fenced 359 million
($485 million) for research projects
that promote low-carbon energy
technologies the largest sum
of money made available by the
EUs research programmes, previously called
Framework Programmes.
The competition money comes from the
new European Union (EU) research funding
programme, Horizon 2020, which has an
overall budget of 80 billion to distribute
between this year and 2020. And Brussels
has also widened the application process
to encourage a large and broad number of
participants.
Rather than building on what applicants
already know, Horizon 2020 wants to focus
on challenges which may require multi-
disciplinary responses. We are defning
the problem and are asking participants
to give us the best solution, EU Research
Commissioner Maire Geoghegan-Quinn said
in a press briefng in Brussels.
Through the challenges posed to the
power industry, research institutes, academia
and non-governmental organizations
(NGOs), Brussels wants to support Europes
transition to low-carbon energy systems.
It wants H2020 to fnd projects that span
the whole innovation process from research
and development to commercialization. The
challenges also aim to respond to issues
related to standardization, as well as the
integration of renewable energy sources into
the grid.
This approach has been appreciated by
the power sector. Julia Eichhorst of European
electricity industry association Eurelectric
welcomed the fact that the frst calls under
Horizon 2020 take a comprehensive look at
and dedicate suffcient funding to the
full innovation value chain, from inception to
demonstration and market uptake.
According to the ECs directorate general
for research, the main power priorities
in Horizon 2020 are the development
and demonstration of renewable energy
technologies for electricity generation;
their integration into the power system; the
electricity grid, including storage; carbon
dioxide (CO
2
) capture, transport, storage
and re-use; and fexible and effcient fossil
fuel power plants.
Horizon 2020 is split into three major
priorities, with the third point, societal
challenges, receiving the lions share,
explains Eichhorst, who adds that secure,
clean and effcient energy, which addresses
most of the funding opportunities related to
power, has an allocated budget of roughly
16 billion for 201420.
Other points relevant for our sector
cover green transport and climate action,
resource effciency and raw materials, she
continues, noting that projects spanning
energy, transport and climate change have
in the past proved diffcult to co-ordinate.
The Commission therefore needs to ensure
full co-ordination and coherence of its
proposed points in order to minimize the risk
of duplication, she adds.
Solar sums
There are different sums of funding available
for projects, depending on the type of
technology involved, with the frst deadlines for
applications having been set for April.
Green funding for
blue sky thinking
The European Commission is throwing its weight and more importantly its wallet
behind a bid to step up low-carbon energy research, writes Carmen Paun.
1402pei_28 28 2/12/14 3:20 PM
o use
y
ax
Low-carbon research
Projects that could deliver highly-effcient,
novel photovoltaics (PV) concepts based
on advanced materials and processes can
obtain between 3 million and 6 million,
the same sum that is available to projects
that try to develop very low-cost PV cells and
modules.
The development of inorganic thin-
flm technologies that achieve module
effciencies higher than 1216 per cent
can receive between 520 million, while
projects that aim to increase the effciency
of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants
while also reducing their construction,
operation and maintenance costs can
obtain between 3 million and 6 million.
Between 520 million is available for those
applications that can demonstrate solutions
that would make CSP plants able to produce
predictable power and be fexible enough to
respond to demands from the grid.
Paolo Basso, policy offcer at the European
Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA), told
Power Engineering International: Progress is
needed in the following areas: performance
enhancement and energy cost reduction;
quality assurance, long-term reliability
and sustainability; and electricity system
integration.
Basso says it is too early to evaluate how
Horizon 2020 will work and deliver the results
it aims for, but he adds that so far the signs
are positive, not least because Horizon 2020
is better than the EUs previous funding
programme because it has an increased
budget available for energy, a bigger focus
on innovation and close-to-market activities,
simplifed procedures and a limited time-to-
grant.
Wind energy challenges are also
addressed in the Horizon 2020 funding
opportunities.
Applications for projects that could
deliver control systems and strategies for
new and large onshore and offshore wind
farms, as well as new innovative substructure
concepts, including foating platforms, to
reduce production, installation, operation
and maintenance costs for water depths of
more than 50 metres are sought by 1 April,
and each project granted funding could
receive 3 million to 6 million.
According to the EC, there is a need to
demonstrate and test new nacelle and rotor
prototypes with a signifcant lower mass and
material intensity. Projects which aim to do
this could each receive between 5 million
and 20 million.
Putting money into turbine development is
a good idea, according to Jacopo Moccia,
head of Political Affairs at the European
Wind Energy Association (EWEA), as turbines
need to be adapted to more complicated
conditions like cold climates or complex
terrains.
Larger parts of Europes seas will also
be exploitable economically by developing
deep offshore solutions, including foating
systems, he says, adding that wind turbines
can also be increasingly better connected to
the electricity grid.
Even so, renewables do not seem to be as
important for the EU as they used to be in the
previous research programme, according
to Moccia. The share of the EU money
dedicated to funding the research and
development [of renewables] has shrunk
from about 40 per cent to 25 per cent [of
available energy research funding] and will
reach about 1.35 billion, he explains.
Brussels has also designed calls for
projects that could deliver improved turbines
for sustainable hydropower able to handle a
wider range of loads and thus increase power
output. This Horizon 2020 call will provide
3 million to 6 million to projects that
can come up with these turbines in the
near future.
The development of ocean energy
components that could withstand harsh
conditions will also be funded, as well as
projects that can create better understanding
about the installation, operation and
decommissioning costs of ocean energy
equipment.
Funding options are also available for
initiatives involving renewable heating and
cooling, and sustainable geothermal power,
as well as for projects that would help fossil
fuel-power plants shift their role from providing
baseload power to fuctuating back-up
power for renewable energy sources. These
projects stand to receive funding ranging
from between 3 million-6 million per project.
Energy storage is one of the main priorities
of Europes transition to low-carbon energy,
and funding is available for next-generation
technologies that respond to this challenge.
Brussels has made millions of euros worth of funding available to solar projects
Credit: QCells
EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger: Horizon 2020 has 80 billion to distribute
Credit: EC
1402pei_29 29 2/12/14 3:21 PM
Low-carbon research
Storage technologies of all sizes relevant to
energy applications and all types of locations
are needed, with funding of between 6 and
9 million per project up for grabs.
Meanwhile, 2025 million per project
is available for large-scale energy storage
project proposals, although this category of
funding is mostly focused on storage systems
that have been already technologically
validated in a relevant environment.
An EC document notes: Integrated
power-to-gas concepts allowing electricity
storage through the production of synthetic
gas to be stored in the gas grid in the form of
synthetic/green methane are eligible.
Projects integrating and validating
solutions to grid challenges, concentrating
on feld demonstrations of system integration
and up-scaling at industrial scale, will also be
able to draw European money from Horizon
2020, with Brussels ready to award between
1215 million to each successful project.
Activities helping deploy meshed off-
shore grids with full interoperability in Europe
can obtain 30-40 million in funding. To do
so, they would have to promote the use of
innovative components within interoperable
meshed off-shore high-voltage direct current
(HVDC) network technologies, services and
tools architectures. Since remote locations
require new grid technologies to transport
electricity over longer distances, a key
technology will be HVDC for which full-scale
demonstrators need to be developed,
notes Moccia.
To succeed in applications, power
companies will need to become part of
international partnerships alongside other
companies, research institutes, academia
and even NGOs.
Most of the calls require research
consortia with at least three legal entities,
each established in different countries. While
each call will set specifc requirements, there
is an overarching grant award criteria taking
into account the excellence of the proposal,
its impact and the likely quality and effciency
of implementation.
Except for projects focusing on activities
close to market, most other projects
awarded funding under Horizon 2020 will see
100 per cent of their costs covered. Applicants
should be informed within a maximum of
eight months from submitting applications if
they have been successful, according to an
EU offcial. There will also be fewer audits on
projects than in the past, the same source
says. We will be focusing more on where the
real risks are, he adds.
Carmen Paun is a Brussels-based freelance
journalist, specializing in European regulation.
i
The EC approach to Horizon 2020 is to present problems and ask the industry for solutions
Credit: EC
EC Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard: Climate action forms part of Horizon 2020
Credit: EC
1402pei_30 30 2/12/14 3:21 PM
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1402pei_31 31 2/12/14 3:21 PM
Schaeffers large-sized bearing test rig in action
Credit: Schaeffer Technologies
T
he push to boost the energy
output of wind turbines is leading
the industry towards taller
structures with longer blades.
Wind at 100 metres fows more
steadily and 4.5 per cent faster
than at 80 metres, with an energy gain of
about 14 per cent. Longer blades can rotate
more slowly yet produce more electrical
power. Last year, close to 5 per cent of new
turbines in the US were 100-metres high, and
this trend is expected to continue worldwide.
But bigger size brings with it signifcant
challenges in design and physics, increasing
the burden on a wind turbines key central
bearings in a number of ways. Turbine rotor
and hub weight alone generate static radial
load and pitching moments. Wind forces
add static and dynamic axial loads on
both bearings and rotor blades. Wind also
generates pitching and yawing moments
that cycle with the position of the blades as
they rotate. The effects of these forces can
multiply as a wind turbine gets larger.
Given the signifcant costs involved in
wind turbine construction, maintenance,
and repair, manufacturers understandably
want to ensure that the designs of newer,
larger turbines are thoroughly proven ahead
of time. Key to that proof is ensuring that
the bearings at the heart of every turbine
will stand up to both the structural and the
environmental stresses as long as possible, in
every imaginable situation.
The industry has been using a variety of
smaller bearing test rigs built to evaluate
standard-size turbine performance. But until
recently there was no way to run real-world
tests on the newer, large-size wind turbine
bearings.
Schaeffer Technologies of Germany is
a rolling-bearing specialist. The companys
catalogue of rolling bearing assemblies is one
of the widest in the industry, covering nearly
all industrial and consumer applications with
more than 40,000 products under the brands
INA and FAG.
Most people do not recognize that
nearly every industry uses rolling bearings
or rolling bearing parts, says Martin Stief,
CAE integration department engineer for
Schaeffer.
One of the highlights over FAGs
100-year history is the London Eye (offcially,
the Millennium Wheel). This Ferris wheel is
the worlds largest and heaviest, standing
135 metres high, measuring 424 metres in
circumference, and weighing 2100 tonnes.
As wind turbines become
bigger, signifcant
physical and design
challenges are placed on
their key central bearings.
However, a new test rig,
described as the biggest
in the world, is helping to
ensure the reliability of
these large-size bearings,
writes Lynn Manning.
Wind turbine testing technology
Bearing up
to turbine testing
1402pei_32 32 2/12/14 3:21 PM
Two FAG spherical roller bearings several
meters wide and weighing several tonnes
help rotate the wheel smoothly.
With years of experience in testing
bearings before putting them to work,
Schaeffer realized that the growing trend
towards larger wind turbines would quickly
dictate a need for much bigger test rigs than
were available.
Before even thinking about performing
expensive real-world tests on large-size wind
turbine bearings, we needed to quantify
the critical operating conditions to minimize
testing time and costs, says Stief.
We also wanted this information to design
and construct the best test rig possible for
such large-size bearings. Finite element
analysis (FEA) provided both insights.
Big bearings: big test rig
While Schaeffer had small test rigs for
simulating and applying real-world bearing
loads on small-size roller bearings, it did not
have a large rig for simulating the conditions
in a commercial, multi-megawatt wind turbine.
When planning our large rig project,
conservative engineering was the
watchword for extrapolating bearing lifetime
tests from small to big bearings, says Stief.
FEA helped us determine the lifetime of
larger bearings more exactly. We can now
design precisely the size of bearing required
by a particular turbine geometry, which helps
keep costs down. We were also able to do
kinematic analysis with original parts, from
both bearings and assemblies provided by
customers. This saves on development time
in the re-engineering and design process.
The fnished test rig is 16 meters long,
6 metres wide and 5.7 metres high. Its mass
is approximately 350 tonnes. As with wind
turbines in the feld, the rig is on a 5 tilt. It
has fve main subassemblies: drive train,
loading frame, auxiliary bearing, test bearing
and tensioning frame. Eight radial and
axial cylinders replicate real-world loads.
Approximately 500 bolts are needed to
mount the auxiliary and test bearings.
The fnished rig can test bearings with
a maximum diameter of approximately
3.5 metres, making it the most modern, largest
and highest performing large-size bearing
test rig in the world. At a cost of approximately
7 million ($9.5 million), the rig represents a
signifcant investment in Schaeffers future
developments in renewable energy.
Despite the two years spent designing
and constructing the test rig, the time spent
on mechanical fnite element (FE) simulation
was short: just two months for strength
assessment and modal analysis. Because
the wind industry is booming right now, we
wanted to make the rig as fast as possible,
says Stief. This meant having a quick and
accurate way to simulate, analyze and verify
rolling bearing assemblies, so we could
create a rig that could accurately measure
them in action.
Schaeffer called the test rig Astraios, who
is one of the Titans in Greek mythology and
the father of the four Wind Gods. Initially, the
name Astraios was appropriate because
the rig was designed to test large-size
bearings specifcally for wind turbines. That
target, however, has evolved. The test rig as
designed can handle any type of industrial
bearing, measuring up to approximately
3.5 metres in diameter, as mentioned
previously, making it suitable for other
large-size bearing applications as well, such
as the heavy equipment used in construction,
mining and excavation.
Surmounting design challenges
Schaeffer started by creating a virtual
prototype to validate the physical test rig,
which itself would replicate the actual
conditions for roller bearings in a wind turbine.
To do this, Stief formed a simulation team of
fve full-time and two part-time members, all of
whom were experienced with using Abaqus
FEA from SIMULIA, the Dassault Systmes
brand for realistic simulation.
Abaqus has been Schaeffers primary
FEA tool for years, says Stief.
The team divided the test rig analysis
into smaller, manageable, functional FE
submodels, which were then connected
together to represent the overall test rig.
To ensure the accuracy of this global
representation, the team used its engineering
judgment in defning loads, transition regions,
and boundary conditions (e.g. stiffness, mass
and damping) between FE submodels.
Parts of the submodels were replaced
by interface conditions that could be
determined by analytical or simulation-
based calculations. This approach helped
The bearing test rig measures 16 metres long, 6 metres wide,
and 5.7 metres high, and weighs approximately 350 tonnes
Large wind turbine nacelle (left) showing bearing in silver, and
Schaeffer large-sized bearing test rig (right) with silver bearing in test position
1402pei_33 33 2/12/14 3:21 PM
reduce the size of the submodels and sped
the creation of working models.
We used Abaqus to test the strengths of
joints and to check specifc connections,
says Stief. When the overall design of the rig
became clearer, we began using Abaqus on
the submodels for strength verifcation. From
those results, we improved the rig design
using basic mechanical know-how, such as
strengthening ribs by making them larger.
Then wed run the submodel through Abaqus
again for another strength assessment. The
team also created an additional FE model
to quickly evaluate the entire test rigs modal
behavior, as well as confrm their defnitions
for the boundary conditions between
submodels. The modal analysis was also used
to estimate the eigenfrequencies (natural
frequencies) for the test rig. Obviously, we
dont want resonance, says Stief. We dont
want the test rig shaking itself apart.
Wind turbines typically rotate about
16 revolutions per minute (rpm), but the
engineers wanted their test rig to run up to
60 rpm the same as a critical excitation
frequency of 1 Hz. The modal analysis
confrmed that the frst natural frequency
of the rig was 13 Hz, well beyond this 1 Hz
value and thus not an issue (subsequent
frequencies were even higher).
To validate their virtual prototype, Schaeffer
ran the full FE model of its test rig through a
large number of load cases within Abaqus.
Even with a very coarse mesh of the entire
test rig, the load-case calculations initially
hit the limits of the available computing
capacity. With 32 GB of RAM, calculating
17 load cases took 48 hours. However, this
time was subsequently slashed to 10 hours
using a newly built-up HPC Linux Calculation
Cluster with faster CPUs and more RAM.
Various functions within Abaqus helped
make model creation effcient and fast. For
example, Abaqus includes hundreds of types
of user elements subroutines that allow the
user to defne their own FE behavior inside an
Abaqus model.
In the bearing package submodel,
the rolling elements of the bearings were
replaced by customized user elements that
represented the precise stiffness behavior
of the rolling elements, as well as several
degrees of freedom that would have had to
be calculated separately.
These special elements cut the degrees
of freedom by several orders of magnitude
from a range of 10
5
down to approximately
10
2
. This signifcantly shortened the time, effort,
and cost of 3D modeling and meshing each
of the rolling elements. Computing time for
analysis plummeted from about fve hours to
about fve seconds.
The large-size bearing test rig has at least
500 of these rolling elements. It would have
been impossible to make any FE calculations
without user elements, says Stief.
Other Abaqus functions helped facilitate
stress analysis and strength verifcations.
The screw bolt modeling function, says Stief,
proved extremely useful because of the
high number of bolts we preloaded with
real-world values for stress and strain. This
function let the team create bolts, mesh them
and copy them as many times as needed in
the 3D models. All subsequent copies were
automatically meshed as well for FE analysis.
Geometry-based modeling helped the
team quickly mesh variants of the whole
model and the numerous submodels.
Scripting and other process automation
techniques made modeling and evaluating
the results easier and faster, greatly simplifying
strength verifcation.
Assembly/part/instance functionality
promoted team collaboration, such as when
exchanging parts between team members.
Stief says that with Abaquss options for
abstraction, we could reduce the size of the
models by replacing large 3D structures with
shell or beam structures, or by linking whole-
model parts with the appropriate interface
conditions.
Analysis leads to optimization
After stress analysis, the team focused on
strength verifcation according to Germanys
FKM Guideline for analytical strength
assessment and the VDI 2230 standard for
screw connections. The results pointed to
additional design modifcations in the test
rig, such as optimizing screw connections,
adding components for increased reliability,
optimizing radii to reduce stresses, and adding
reinforcing ribs.
The simulation models we created proved
our test rig was reliable and applicable for all
types of large-size bearings, says Stief. Going
forward, simulation validated with test rig
runs will also provide Schaeffer with bearing-
specifc values, such as load distribution,
pressure distribution and contact angles, as
well as vital data about the elastic behavior
of bearing components under high preload.
This will lead to even more realistic results in
bearing lifetime calculation, says Stief.
Their current work now helps Schaeffer
detect critical operating conditions early
in the development of large-size bearings,
and minimize bearing test time on the rig
(with associated operating costs). From this,
Schaeffer can optimize its bearing products
earlier and easily in all the design stages and
put added focus on reducing friction in its
roller bearings.
In total, says Stief, simulation with Abaqus
FEA has been invaluable in maximizing the
performance of Schaeffers own products, as
well as those of their customers. In the wind
industry, we can now develop more detailed
instructions for operating and maintaining
fnished turbines. This in turn helps us
provide our customers with more precise
recommendations about the construction
of their wind turbines. And our new test rig
enables us to support customers in other
industries as well.
Lynn Manning is a science and technology
writer, based in the US.
i
The wind generates both static and dynamic
axial loads on a wind turbine
1402pei_34 34 2/12/14 3:21 PM
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1402pei_35 35 2/12/14 3:21 PM
S
un, a bit of sea and an awful
lot of sand no, not my annual
holiday, but a working trip to Abu
Dhabi for the World Future Energy
Summit (WFES).
Now in its seventh year, WFES
is the energy pow-wow held anually as the
centrepiece of Abu Dhabi Sustainability
Week (ADSW). The great and the good from
the energy world turn up, deals are done,
technology showcased and the temperature
of the renewable energy world is taken.
There was a lot of optimism in and
around the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition
Centre which housed WFES but then there
would be: with Masdar City Abu Dhabis
sustainable poster city for clean technology
just a hop and a skip down the road, you
will not fnd many people telling you that the
renewables bubble has burst.
A particular focus of ADSW was Africa,
highlighted by two key announcements
made by the Abu Dhabi-headquartered
International Renewable Energy Agency
(IRENA). Firstly, IRENA revealed that 19
countries had signed up to an action plan
it had drawn up to create an Africa Clean
Energy Corridor. The corridor is designed to
boost the deployment of renewable energy
and help meet Africas rising energy demand
with clean power from renewable sources
such as hydro, geothermal, biomass, wind
and solar.
IRENAs director-general Adnan Z.
Amin said the corridor would provide the
continent with the opportunity to leapfrog
into a sustainable energy future.
A day later, IRENA held a press conference
to announce that, in conjunction with the
Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), it
was giving loans of $41 million to renewable
energy projects in six developing countries,
with half of them in Africa.
It is the frst wave of concessional loans
handed out by the IRENA/ADFD partnership
and the winning projects are in Ecuador, Mali,
the Maldives, Mauritania, Samoa and Sierra
After spending a week in
Abu Dhabi for the World
Future Energy Summit,
Kelvin Ross reports on
the talking points in
the conference halls
and on the brand new
streets of Masdar City,
the UAEs greenprint for
sustainability.
World Future Energy Summit round-up
Exterior of Siemens new Middle East HQ at Masdar City.
Fin-like shapes keep out the sunlight
Credit: Masdar
The shape of
things to come
The establishment
of Masdar in Abu
Dhabi had been the
trigger for renewables
awareness in the
region
Adnan Z. Amin, director-general, IRENA
1402pei_36 36 2/12/14 3:21 PM
Leone, and involve hydro, wind, solar and
biomass technology. Amin said the projects
were all shovel-ready to go and would
bring power to isolated off-grid populations,
in some cases for the frst time
He added: Financing is one of the key
issues renewable energy is facing, particularly
in the developing world, and confrmed that
IRENA and the ADFD had teamed up to de-risk
investments in promising renewable projects.
Amin went on to say that the success of the
frst round of loans debunked one of the
We are optimistic on
wind and its not blind
optimism, but founded
optimism: wind has
shown its resilience in
terms of being able
to compete with other
forms of energy
Bader Al Lamki, Clean Energy director, Masdar
myths about renewable energy projects that
there are not enough of them out there.
There is a large pipeline of renewable
energy projects that are viable today, he
said, explaining that the six projects that
won funding were chosen from a list of 80
worth more than $800 million. And we are
expecting the volume for the next cycle
of fnancing to be substantially higher he
added.
Amin said that there was tremendous
growth in renewable energy investment in the
GCC, adding that the leader in the process
is the UAE. Indeed, he said the establishment
of Masdar in Abu Dhabi had been the trigger
for [renewables] awareness in the region.
Almost every country in the region is
now setting renewable energy targets and
we are seeing more and more ambitious
projects for the future.
All of which is true, but if the number of
potential projects is growing, what is falling
is the global level of renewable investment.
Just ahead of ADSW, Bloomberg New Energy
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Attendees admire Masdars model exhibit at WFES
Credit: K. Ross
1402pei_37 37 2/12/14 3:21 PM
Finance published data revealing that global
investment in clean energy declined last
year, continuing a fall started in 2012. Figures
showed that last year the total investment
was $254 billion, down from $288.9 billion in
2012 and signifcantly less than the record
sum of $317.9 billion seen in 2011.
That is disappointing, said Amin, but
he added that it was understandable
given the recession in so many areas which
had previously been leaders in investment,
such as Europe. However he added that
the consolidation that has swept across
many parts of the sector would result in
the emergence of a much leaner, cost-
competitive industry.
African opportunities
The focus on Africa continued at the WFES
opening ceremony, when Masdar chief
executive Dr. Sultan Al Jabar was joined on the
stage by the presidents of Senegal and Sierra
Leone and the prime minister of Ethiopia.
Dr. Al Jabar said that with six of the ten
fastest-growing economies of the past
decade located in sub-Saharan Africa, the
development opportunities in this region are
tremendous.
Ethiopias prime minister Hailemariam
Desalegn told the audience that Africa
is rising. Even though Africa contributes
negligible emissions compared to the rest
of the world, we have opted for a green,
climate-friendly vision for our future. And
Sierra Leone president Ernest Bai Koroma said
Africa is going to be the place where clean
energy technologies are going to scale and
encourage sustainable development.
Africa again featured heavily once the
conference programme kicked off. At a
debate on wind energy, a panel of wind
sector players including Siemens, Alstom,
Masdar, and Acciona picked out South
Africa as the go-to destination for wind
business in 2014.
South Africa is the most promising market,
said Carmen Becerril, chief international
offcer at Spanish wind power company
Acciona. She said Acciona was looking to
Africa for fresh business as Europe will be in
a very fat position for 2014.
Markus Tacke, chief executive of Siemens
wind division, agreed 2014 will be a
challenging year, saying that the prospects
in offshore wind were much better than those
onshore. He said onshore was a fat market,
with the Middle East and North Africa
remaining the region we have hope in.
The most upbeat of the panellists was
Masdars clean energy director Bader Al
Lamki, who said 2013 had been exceptional
for Masdar. He said the highlight was the
opening of London Array, the biggest offshore
wind farm in the world, which came on line
last summer off the east coast on England.
Masdar, alongside E.ON and Dong Energy,
is the developer of the 175-turbine, 630 MW
site. Al Lamki said that on the back of large
projects such as London Array to smaller
schemes like one in the Seychelles, he said
Masdar was looking to 2014 with optimism.
Not blind optimism but founded optimism:
wind has shown its resilience in terms of being
able to compete with other forms of energy.
He said there was much for the sector
to be positive about going into the new
year, highlighting Jordans frst wind park,
regulatory stability in the UK, a growing sector
in France and the huge market in Morocco,
Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
On the domestic front, Masdar is also
making slow but steady progress with the
development of the $16 million sustainable
fagship Masdar City.
With work starting in 2008, the city is
designed to be a blueprint or greenprint
for sustainable living and working. Much is
already built and a whole lot more is under
construction, with some major global names
moving in to the new business space.
During ADSW, Siemens opened its new
Middle East headquarters, dubbing it an
important milestone in the companys
history. Designed by architects Sheppard
Robson International, the building is said to
be one of the most energy-effcient buildings
in the region, reducing energy consumption
by almost 50 per cent compared to
conventional buildings of the same size.
Masdars Dr. Al Jaber said Siemens
presence marks a signifcant step forward
in Masdar Citys growth as a leading global
model of sustainable design and modern
urban planning.
Other Masdar City business residents
include GE, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and
IRENA, and they will be joined soon by French
engineering company Schneider Electric.
Wandering around the shaded streets of
Masdar City, you notice a number of rooftop
solar installations, while just outside the current
crop of buildings lies a 10 MW solar plant.
The prospects for the solar power industry
were debated back in the WFES conference
hall, where Michael Geyer, business
development boss at Spains Abengoa Solar,
said the global market was entering a new
Solar policy needs to
be forward thinking.
With policy comes
investment
Sam Sakir, chief executive, Areva Solar
Rooftop solar at Masdar City Exterior of Masdar City apartments
One of Masdar Citys Personal
Rapid Transport cars, driverless and running
on solar-powered lithium batteries
Concourse space at Masdar City
Credit all: K. Ross
1402pei_38 38 2/12/14 3:21 PM
technology generation and a new market
generation.
Geyer said that both solar PV and CSP
could look forward to a bright future not
least because more investors had faith
in the sector. The money is out there. We
have gained the confdence of investors
and lenders they are confdent in the
technology.
Andreas Heidelberg, head of technology
at Masdar PV, said the reaching of grid
parity in a number of regions in 2013 was
a defning moment for solar, but he added
that the market was still being hindered by
uncertainty from policy makers. There is
no stability in policies and this is leading to
oversupply and a strong decline in prices. For
2014, I see that overcapacity will still persist
but we are getting to a price level where it
wont decline the market will stabilize.
Matt Campbell, senior director at
SunPower Corp in the US, agreed that the
reaching of grid parity was a milestone in
2013 and he predicted that 2014 would see
a lot of new countries responding to the
changes in solar PV.
Sam Sakir, chief executive of Areva Solar
in France, echoed Heidelberg that what was
needed to keep momentum in the market
was a shift in policy making. Policy in various
regions needs to be forward thinking. With
policy comes investment and from there
you have the cut and paste effect: what is
successful for one project is transferred to
another.
At another WFES debate on solar, the focus
of geographical attention was on the Middle
East, where, according to Tarek El Sayed, vice-
president of Lebanons Booz & Company,
solar is not theory anymore projects are
there and momentum is building. Delegates
heard that the UAE dominates the MENA
region for solar, with 140 MW currently
operational from 58 projects, including the
regions 100 MW solar poster child, Shams 1,
which went operational last year.
Growing organically
With the arrival in Masdar City of Siemens, GE,
Mitsubishi and Schneider Electric, Masdar
is upbeat on the future. As the city grows
organically we think other people will want
to be a part of it, says Steve Severance,
Masdars head of Program Management
and Investments.
He adds that the city is testimony to
Abu Dhabis bid to be more than just one
of the worlds biggest reserves of oil and
gas. To become a leader in sustainability
and renewables is a much more diffcult
proposition.
You look at all the countries around the
world that have oil or that make money by
taking things out of the ground, the frst thing
they do is put the money in a bank account,
count it and say thank you. In Abu Dhabi they
have really reinvested in its economy and its
population.
Severance says that Masdar City is a
demonstration that in this environment you
can live in a way that uses signifcantly less
resources.
He says Abu Dhabi realises that its
resources are not infnite, global warming
is a problem and they understand that
after oil was discovered, the Gulf states used
signifcantly more energy per person than
anywhere else.
Masdar is a demonstration that even in
a diffcult environment, you can fgure out
ways to live that use less energy and also that
sustainability makes your life better.
ABB wins Zayed Prize
Swiss company ABB won the Zayad Future
Energy Prize for large corporations in Abu
Dhabi.
ABB became the sixth winner of the
prize, beating fellow fnalists GE and US
retail giant Walmart.
The prize was accepted by ABB chief
executive Ulrich Spiesshofer, who has
been in the role only since September
last year.
At a press conference after the
ceremony, Spiesshofer said that there is a
correlation in a company between doing
well and doing good.
He added that he believed that solar
in 2030 will have the same relevance in
the global energy mix as nuclear.
After turbulent times of rising and
falling prices and consolidation, he
added that solar will fnd its way back into
a prospering business.
The $4 million Zayed Future Energy
Prize, established by the UAE government,
is split into fve categories and is awarded
to companies, organizations, schools and
individuals that have made signifcant
contributions to the future of renewable
energy and sustainability.
The other winners were Indias Abellon
CleanEnergy in the SME category,
Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy
Systems as NGO, Wang Chuanfu won the
lifetime achievement award and fve high
schools from around the world took prizes
in the Global High Schools category.
Wang Chuanfu is founder and
president of Chinese battery maker BYD.
Dr. Al Jaber, director general of the prize,
said: The collective efforts of our winners
and fnalists are positively impacting
communities around the world. Today,
alumni of the prize are championing the
deployment of renewable energy.
i
Dr. Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, chief executive of Masdar, gave the keynote address
at the opening ceremony of the WFES in Abu Dhabi
Credit: Masdar
1402pei_39 39 2/12/14 3:21 PM
T
he design of radial, axial and
circumferential seals installed on
rotary, regenerative air preheaters
(APHs) have not evolved
signifcantly from the original
metal strip arrangements that
date back to the inception of the Ljungstrm
preheaters nearly a century ago. However,
these metallic strip seals tend to start to
degrade immediately following installation,
allowing excessive air-to-gas leakage, which
translates to increased fuel consumption and
fan power draw over the life of the seals.
The well-known heat transfer, temperature
and effciency-related benefts for rotary APHs
make them a key component of any power
plant. As a critical contributor to overall plant
effciency, APHs deliver upwards of 12 per cent
of the heat transfer in the boiler process at
only 2 per cent of the investment. For every
20C decrease in the gas outlet temperature
of the air heater, boiler effciency rises about
1 per cent, with inherent fuel consumption
reductions. APHs operating at optimal
conditions also help reduce fan power
consumption and control fue gas volume,
temperature and velocity.
That said, air-to-gas and gas-to-air leakage
paths through the APH seals, as shown in
Figure 1, have several consequences. Leak
rates with properly designed and installed
seals should be well below 10 per cent, but
rates of 1520 per cent are typical and rates of
>30 per cent are not uncommon.
Furthermore, leak rate increases can be
gradual and often go unnoticed. Leakage
negatively impacts heat rates, parasitic power
losses with increased fan power consumption,
and downstream air pollution control (APC)
equipment because of higher gas fow rates
and pressure drops.
Flue gas velocity through a typical selective
catalytic reduction is approximately 56 m/s,
but higher velocities because of air-to-gas
leakage will decrease residence time and
therefore affect ammonia injection rates and
slip. In fue gas desulphurization systems, lower
residence time can affect lime or limestone
injection rates and thus SO
2
removal effciency.
Finally for particulate matter control systems,
higher air-to-cloth face velocities in fabric flters
can lead to decreased bag life. Pulverizer
capacity can also be negatively impacted
with lower air volumes and temperatures due
to air-to-gas leakage.
The optimisation of APH performance, often
not considered a priority, is truly a low-cost,
easily implemented solution to decrease the
It is well known that air
preheater leakage is a
major factor in the loss
of boiler effciency, but it
is routinely viewed as a
low-priority issue. Pavan
Kumar Ravulaparthy
argues that there needs
to be a change in attitude
and explains the benefts
of employing adaptive
brush seals.
The installation of brush seals at Hardin power station
have reduced operating costs via fuel savings
Credit: Sealeze
Advanced air preheater sealing
Air preheater leaks:
Mind the gap
1402pei_40 40 2/12/14 3:21 PM
consequences of leakage. A key component
of APH optimisation is the upgrade of its radial,
axial and circumferential seals.
Conventional rigid metal strip seals,
in common use since the introduction of
the Ljungstrm rotary APHs in the 1920s,
are vulnerable in the surrounding harsh
environment. Repeated thermal expansions
and contractions in the large rotors (up to
18 metres in diameter) in constant motion
lead to continual changes in gap sizes. At
operating temperatures, the outer edges
of large APHs can droop or turn down by
7.5 cm or more compared to under cold
conditions. However, because they are unable
to yield to the warpage of sector plates, the
conventional metal strip seals are prone to
stress and breakage.
An interesting alternative are brush seal
products, which are witnessing increased
adoption as radial, axial, circumferential/
bypass and rotor seals on Ljungstrm rotary
regenerative APHs on fossil fuel-fred boilers.
Brush seals are in fact ideally suited for
replacing strip steels on rotary, regenerative
APHs. As radial, axial, and circumferential
seals, they provide a high degree of abrasion
resistance, adaptability to operating
conditions and bend recovery not possible
with rigid strip seals. Rigid strip seals rapidly
wear down to the smallest gap size allowing
leakage to occur at wider gaps. The strip
seals are also vulnerable to damage at high
differential pressures and expansion because
of temperature increases where induced drag
can shut down the rotor.
A brush seal, in contrast, produces an
extremely dense barrier as thousands of
flaments nestle tightly together to create a
high-integrity seal. Each bristle is independent
and fexible allowing defection to conform
to any irregularities and gap variations,
and recovery to its original position. Several
distinct features are incorporated into the
brush seal design.
A malleable alloy foil membrane is nestled
within the brush flaments to enhance sealing
by up to 80 per cent. This resilient barrier to
leakage feature provides 25 times greater
functional sealing life (Figure 2).
Soot blowing can splay the sealing
surfaces due to steam blasts of 205C. To
prevent this direct impingement, an angled
holder with an extended protective fange has
been incorporated as a soot blower shield. The
resilience to soot blower impacts is achieved
by minimising dwell time in the soot blower
steam path. This design further improves bend
recovery and seal contact.
A further design enhancement, shown
in Figure 3, is a two-component Quick-Lock
system allowing for the removal of just the brush
component during an outage. The holder
component is re-used as on the initial install it
remains locked down to the appropriate gap.
During outages, the timeconsuming process
of seal realignment is eliminated as the brush
itself can be removed and replaced quickly.
Avoiding gap setting and bolting of holders
at each replacement contributes to low life-
cycle cost as seal replacement time can be
reduced by 5060 per cent.
Quantifable benefts
Since APH leakage has historically been a
low priority maintenance outage issue with
many fossil fuel power plant engineers, plants
often experience leakage rates in excess of
1520 per cent, with extreme leakage rates
up to 40 per cent measured. These levels
are often tolerated because they are often
underestimated or completely overlooked.
As a result, plants can experience capacity
losses, increased heat rates, higher parasitic
losses associated with fan horsepower, and
higher pressure losses for downstream APC
systems. A plant that has experienced running
out of fan can conclude with a high degree
of certainty that they have excess preheater
leakage and are suffering from costly side effects.
To give an example, a 500 MW coal-fred
plant operating at an 85 per cent annual
capacity factor would consume 5000 tonnes
of coal per day, assuming an average heat
rate of 10,550 kJ/kWh and an average coal
heating value of 5500 kcal/kg. If increases in
boiler effciency due to improved APH sealing
reduce fuel consumption by 1 per cent, the
annual savings in fuel cost amounts to nearly
$1.5 million, assuming a delivered coal cost of
$80/tonne.
APH leakage can also account for
signifcant increases in parasitic power draw
Figure 2: The patented adaptive brush seal showing malleable alloy foil membrane
located within the brush flaments to provide an extra 70-80 per cent reduction in leakage
without sacrifcing overall seal fexibility
Credit: Sealeze
Figure 1: APH leak paths through circumferential, axial, radial and rotor post seals
Credit: Sealeze
1402pei_41 41 2/12/14 3:21 PM
from the boiler fans and this translates into
revenue losses from unsalable power. If a
500 MW coal-fred plant has 8595 kW of
installed fan power with two primary, two
secondary and two ID fans (excluding an
AQCS system), and two APHs originally
designed with 10 per cent air heater leakage
(AHL), an additional 10 per cent increase in
AHL would cost a 13 per cent increase in fan
power consumption.
In other words, for every 1 per cent increase
in AHL the plant essentially sacrifces116 kW,
which is unavailable for sale, or 1.16 MW for
every 10 per cent increase in AHL. If the sale
value of a MWh is $30 off-peak and $150
peak, the plant operating on an 85 per cent
capacity factor running six hours a day peak
and 18 hours a day off-peak would stand to
lose a sizeable $520,000 per year.
Views from the feld
In June 2007, Sealeze, a subsidiary of Jason
Incorparated, was authorised to manufacture
and supply a simple yet innovative axial and
radial brush seal design for both the hot and
cold ends of the Unit 1 Ljungstrm APH at
Bicent Powers 119 MW Hardin power plant in
Montana, in the US.
The radial and axial stainless steel brush
seals were inspected the following year and
were found to be in very good condition.
Some splaying of the brush was evident on
the cold end due to soot blower blasts of
205C steam. To prevent direct soot blower
impingement, the brush seals mounted in the
path of soot blower blasts were redesigned
to incorporate an angled orientation and an
integral protective shield.
Now, with over fve years in service, the
high-performance brush seals continue to
outperform the original strip steel seals. Further.
the brush seals are expected to continue
performing through a predicted design life of
at least four outage cycles.
According to Kevin Calloway, a plant
engineer at Colorado Energy, which operates
Hardin on behalf of Bicent Power: The brush
seals have reduced air leakage considerably,
and as a result we have reduced operational
costs through fuel savings. Further, the plant
has been able to postpone two scheduled
APH outages.
In another example, radial and
circumferential brush seals were installed
on two 8-metre diameter horizontal APH
(APH-A/B) at a 300 MW power station in the
US in 2010. The plant reports leakage rates well
below 10 per cent, with tests showing leakage
rates of 5 per cent and 7 per cent on APH-A
and APH-B, respectively.
Also in 2010, radial and axial brush seals
were installed on a 10-metre diameter vertical
Ljungstrm APH at a 750 MW plant in US. Both
the radial and axial brush seals remained
intact over 2.3 million impacts to the sector
plates following 490 days in service. The
brush profles are essentially the same as the
installed condition.
Seal integrity remains intact as the seal
conforms to gap size variations and surface
irregularities. Shown here are radial seals after
135 days in service and 642,000 contacts.
The effect of boiler side parameters of any
coal-fred power plant is linked to a host of
factors including excess air, unburned carbon
and coal moisture. However, two parameters
that have a major impact on plant
performance is fue gas temperature and
boiler effciency. In a 500 MW coalfred power
plant, the effect of heat rate per C deviation
can be 1.2 kcal/kWh and 25 kcal/kWh per
1 per cent deviation of boiler effciency.
Nevertheless, these two parameters are
closely related to air heater performance.
The major air heater performance indicators
are air-in leakage, fue gas temperature drop, air-
side temperature rise and air/gas side pressure
drop. The leakage of the high-pressure air to the
low-pressure fue gas because of the differential
pressure, termed as AHL, is the major contributor
for reduction in boiler effciency. Increased AHL
reduces air heater effciency, increases fan
power and produces higher gas velocities
and a loss of fan margins. AHL is associated
with poor air heater seal performance, such
as increased seal clearances in hot condition,
seal erosion, inappropriate seal material and
improper seal settings.
An adaptive brush type air heater seal
is a demonstrated technology that provides
an extended functional service life with
measurable improvement in performance
and an increased control for plant operators
with low total cost. The calculated payback
on effciency improvements alone has been
demonstrated to provide ROI valued at many
times the cost of the adaptive brush seal and
installation. Added to this, savings related
to pollution control systems performance
is a nice multiplier. AHL reduction, therefore,
is a low-risk, low-cost, high-return-value
modifcation to rotary air heater systems,
so effective sealing through innovative
approaches such as brush seals is highly
recommended to improve O&M practices.
Pavan Kumar Ravulaparthy is product
manager and head of the Power Generation
Division of Sealeze Incorporated, US. For more
information, visit www.sealezepower.com.
Figure 3: The Quick-Lock brush seal design
Credit: Sealeze
Fuel savings $1.5 million
Auxiliary power savings $520,000
Total annual plant
savings
$2 million
Installed cost of brush air
heater seals
$100,000
Payback ~ 18 days
Table 1: Payback analysis on a 500 MW unit*
*Payback analysis does not include gains on
AQCS equipment performance and reduced
outage downtime.
i
1402pei_42 42 2/12/14 3:21 PM
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WHERE POWERFUL MINDS CONVERGE
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SPEAKER AND DELEGATE
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INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE
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Diary
April
European Offshore & Energy
810 April
Birmingham, UK
www.europeanoffshoreenergy-expo.com
Power & Electricity World Asia
2225 April
Singapore
www.terrapinn.com
Smart Electricity World Asia
2225 April
Singapore
www.terrapinn.com
May
DistribuTECH India
57 May
New Delhi, India
www.distributechindia.com
POWER-GEN India & Central Asia
57 May
New Delhi, India
www.power-genindia.com
Renewable Energy World India
57 May
New Delhi, India
www.renewableenergyworldindia.com
45th Annual Meetong on Nuclear
Technology
68 May
Frankfurt, Germany
www.kerntechnik.info
Nuclear Energy in the UK
20 May
London, UK
www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk
All Energy
21-22 May
Aberdeen, UK
www.all-energy.co.uk
June
Eurelectric Annual Convention
23 June
London, UK
www.eurelectric.org
POWER-GEN Europe
35 June
Cologne, Germany
www.powergeneurope.com
Renewable Energy World Europe
35 June
Cologne, Germany
www.renewableenergyworld-europe.com
Intersolar Europe
36 June
Munich, Germany
www.intersolar.de/en/intersolar.html
July
Intersolar North America
710 July
San Francisco, CA, US
www.intersolar.us/en/intersolar.html
International Conference on Smart
Grid Systems
17-18 July
Bangkok, Thailand
www.icsgs.org
HydroVision International
2225 July
Nashville, TN, US
www.hydroevent.com
August
COAL-GEN
2022 August
Nashville, TN, US
www.coal-gen.com
2014
March
HydroVision Russia
46 March
Moscow, Russian Federation
www.hydrovision-russia.com
Russia Power
46 March
Moscow, Russian Federation
www.russia-power.org
EWEA 2014
1013 March
Barcelona, Spain
www.ewea.org
APAC Smart Grid Conference
11-12 March
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
www.energy.feminggulf.com
DistribuTECH Africa
1719 March
Cape Town, South Africa
www.distributechafrica.com
POWER-GEN Africa
1719 March
Cape Town, South Africa
www.powergenafrica.com
The Shale Gas Forum
19 March
London, UK
www.marketforce.eu.com
Intersolar China
2528 March
Beijing, PR China
www.intersolarchina.com
The Future of Utilities
2527 March
London, UK
www.marketforce.eu.com
1402pei_44 44 2/12/14 3:22 PM
Project Update

Mott MacDonald
selected for 840 MW
combined-cycle
gas plant in Turkey
Engineering consultants Mott MacDonald has
been appointed owners engineer for a new
840 MW combined-cycle gas turbine power
plant in Turkey.
The plant will be located in the Kirikkale,
Central Anatolia region and is expected to
cost around $900m to build.
The plant, which will use a highly-effcient
GE combined-cycle system, comprising gas
and steam turbines, generators, heat recovery
steam generators and controls, will have
the capacity to provide 50 per cent of the
electricity in Ankara.
The project represents one of the largest
investments in Turkey in recent years and is
expected to be completed by the end of 2016.
Mott MacDonald will review and verify
the power plants design, carry out factory
inspections and monitor construction on site.
OMM to install Chiles frst submarine cable

Andritz wins $102m
Kazahkstani power
plant contract
Andritz has won a $102m contract from
Shardarinskaya to upgrade electro-
mechanical equipment at the Shardarinskaya
hydropower plant in Kazakhstan.
Andritz will upgrade four Kaplan turbines
with a runner diameter of 5.3 metres at the
104 MW plant located on the Syr-Darya River in
the southern part of the country.
It will also supply generators and new
control equipment, as well as modernisation
of the auxiliary systems of the plant, which was
originally commissioned in 1967.
The modernisation work, which is set for
completion in the second half of 2017, will
increase the capacity of each turbine from
the current 26 MW to 31.5 MW, representing
an increase of around 20 per cent.
Offshore Marine Management has won a
multi-million dollar contract to install Chiles frst
submarine cable.
The cable will join the Chilean island of
Huar to the countrys central grid.
UK-headquartered OMM clinched the
engineering-procure-install and commission
deal from Chilean electrical company Grupo
Saesa following an international tender.
OMM will provide cable route design,
marine surveys, and the installation of marine
resources.
Eckhard Bruckschen, OMMs chief
operating offcer, said: Were delighted to be
involved in laying the frst submarine power
cable installed in the country.
He added: It is a ground-breaking project
and a huge step forward towards the goal of
supplying electrical power to remote areas of
Chile.
Feat of logistics sees Humber Gateway
wind farm substations arrive in UK
Two substations have arrived by ship at the
Port of Sunderland in the UK from Belgium as
part of the Humber Gateway offshore wind
farm project.
The 219 MW Humber Gateway has been
given planning consent and will be built
by German energy utility E.ON around 8 km
off Englands East Yorkshire coast and will
comprise 73 turbines.
A key part of the project will be the
connection of the wind farm to the national
grid onshore.
The two 600 tonne substations (pictured)
arrived at Sunderland via barge and were
transported on self-propelled trailers to a
temporary base at the port where they will
stay for six to 12 months before being shipped
to the offshore wind farm site.
45
1402pei_45 45 2/12/14 3:22 PM
www.PowerEngineeringInt.com
Project Update
46 Power Engineering International February 2014
Finance of $220m
agreed for Jordans
frst wind farm
Deals for $220m of fnance for Jordans frst
large-scale renewable energy project have
been signed.
The JWPC Tafla wind farm is an
independent power project and has secured
European and international support that
covers almost 77 per cent of the total cost of
the project.
Agreements have been signed with
a consortium of lenders comprising the
International Finance Cooperation, the
European Investment Bank (EIB), the Eksport
Kredit Fonden, the OPEC Fund for International
Development, FMO and Europe Arab Bank.
The 117 MW wind farm will be located in
the Tafla governorate and will be equipped
with 38 turbines.
It is intended to help cut Jordans current
heavy dependency on energy imports and
once fully developed is expected to account
for almost 10 per cent of the countrys 2020
renewable energy target, which is 1200 MW.
EIB vice-president Philippe de Fontaine Vive
said the project provides a strong and green
signal for the future in terms of technology,
economic and energy development, and job
opportunities.
Eksport Kredit Fonden chief executive
Anette Eberhard added that the wind farm
was project breaking new ground for wind
farms in the Arab Mediterranean region, and
this bodes well for the future.
ZhongshanYongan Electricity has selected
Wood Group to perform a conversion project
on a gas-fred power plant which will see the
Chinese frm achieve a signifcant reduction in
emissions.
Wood Group was awarded a DLN (Dry Low
NOx) combustion system conversion contract,
and the project will focus on the upgrade of
the sites combustion system from standard
diffusion to DLN, on a Frame 9E combined-
cycle gas turbine. The work is scheduled to
begin in the coming weeks.
Incorporating Wood Group GTS-
manufactured DLN combustion hardware,
software and auxiliary systems will help
ZhongshanYongan Electricity meet its
emission and operational requirements.
ZhongshanYongan will be provided with
a turnkey solution that includes modifcation
of the existing control system, and DLN
monitoring and tuning services as a long-term
service.
The conversion will enable the Chinese frm
to achieve reduced emissions performance
and comply with upcoming NOx and CO
emission regulations to ensure that the gas
turbine operates in a stable and effcient
manner into the future.
Wood Group wins combustion system
conversion contract in China
Viva-Trilogy Dominicana, a Dominican
Republic mobile network, has announced
the completion of a backup power pilot
programme using a GE Durathon battery and
a remote monitoring and diagnostic (RMD)
system from OmniMetrix, an Acorn Energy
company.
GE reports that the pilot resulted in an
88 per cent reduction in backup power costs
and diesel fuel expenses, as well as a 60 per
cent decrease in site energy costs.
The Dominican Republic is known for an
unreliable grid in certain areas, said Edgar
Geidans, chief technology offcer of Trilogy
International Partners, Viva-Trilogys parent
company.
Power is often lost for four to eight hours
at a time, during which our diesel generators
provide power to our telecommunication
towers. The results of this trial have shown
signifcant diesel savings using a leading-
edge battery and controlling solution. We look
forward to continuing our work and analysis
with GE and OmniMetrix.
The four-month pilot programme
demonstrated the value of pairing a remote
monitoring and diagnostic system with GEs
Durathon Battery.
The GE Durathon Battery and OmniMetrix
RMD system were installed at a base
transceiver station in a part of the Dominican
Republic known for its frequent power outages.
During such outages, the battery was able
to supplement electricity typically produced
by a diesel generator to power the site. The
OmniMetrix RMD system provided real-time
data on both the battery and the grids overall
performance.
Prescott Logan, general manager of
GE Energy Storage, said the pilot scheme
demonstrates how sites that typically rely
on diesel generators for backup power
at telecommunications sites can achieve
signifcantly lower operating cost, while
providing reliable power.
OmniMetrixs RMD system enhances the
inherent merits of GEs battery by providing
visibility to critical operating metrics.
GEs Durathon battery is based on a
sodium-nickel energy storage technology that
currently is being used in various applications
in the telecommunications, utility and data
storage industries.
GE hails the battery as a breakthrough
due to its energy density, low toxicity and
temperature independence.
Dominican Republic backup pilot scheme
cut costs by almost 90 per cent
1402pei_46 46 2/12/14 3:22 PM
Technology Update
Cummins Power Generation has launched a
new lean-burn gas generator set product line.
Cummins says the new 50 Hz products,
which extend the capabilities of the existing
QSV91G generator range, offer exceptional
transient performance and improved fuel
capability, allowing them to run on low
methane number fuels and produce lower
emissions.
The new line marks the debut of a 2 MWe
variant (pictured), alongside the improved
1540 kWe and 1750 kWe models.
Primary applications for the new models
include prime, peaking and combined heat
and power, as well as continuous operation in
island mode and standby power.
Cummins says the new models are ideal
for remote locations where grid power is
unavailable, such as mining, oil or gas felds,
or in regions of the world where grid power is
either unreliable or inaccessible.
The company adds that a major feature
of the new line-up is their blackstart capability
the ability to bring the generator set quickly
into operation without relying on an external
electricity source such as the grid. Black
start capability frees the generator set from
grid dependency and allows its deployment
anywhere there is a need, says Cummins. The
new product line is also capable of running in
high altitude and high ambient temperature
environments with minimal derate.
Cummins launches gas genset range with blackstart capability
Siemens has produced the worlds frst large-
scale transformer that uses vegetable oil.
The transformer (pictured) will link the
380-kV ultra-high voltage level with the
110-kV grid in the Bruchsal-Kndelweg
substation plant near Karlsruhe, Germany.
Until now, Siemens has used vegetable oil
insulation in power transformers with voltages
of up to 123 kV the new transformer is
designed for 420 kV.
Transformers are usually cooled and
insulated with mineral or silicone oil, but
vegetable oils are environmentally friendlier
and less fammable.
Siemens new transformer weighs just
under 340 tonnes and contains 100 tonnes
of insulating oil, which comes from renewable
vegetable resources.
The company says the device is the worlds
frst power transformer on the 420-kV ultra-
high-voltage level that does not require proof
of its water hazard classifcation.
TransnetBW, a grid operator in the German
state of Baden-Wrttemberg, will put the
transformer into operation in July.
Worlds frst large-scale transformer that uses
vegetable oil
Control systems company Heinzmann UK has
revealed that its variable guide vane actuator
(pictured) has been chosen by Siemens to be
used in its gas turbine SGT-400 core engine.
The actuator is all electric, operating
without hydraulics or pneumatics, and it
was chosen by Siemens following extensive
development.
Currently there is serial production of 50
of the actuators per annum and Heinzmann
will now develop a similar smaller unit for the
Siemens engine.
Oklahoma deal marks
US frst for MHIs
J-Series gas turbine
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has won its frst US
order for its J-Series gas turbine.
The turbine is for Chouteau power station,
a 495 MW gas combined-cycle plant being
built by Oklahomas state-owned electric utility,
Grand River Dam Authority (GRDA).
As well as the M501J gas turbine, MHI
will provide an SRT-50 steam turbine and
a generator. The gas turbine will be made
at MHIs manufacturing base in the US in
Savannah, Georgia.
The generator will be supplied by Mitsubishi
Electric Corporation.
Chouteau power plant will be built near
Tulsa and is intended to help GRDA meet
new emissions regulations by reducing its
dependence on coal-fred power generation.
Heinzmann actuator picked for Siemens gas turbine
47
1402pei_47 47 2/12/14 3:22 PM
Technology Update
ABB has launched its 420 kV high-voltage
hybrid switchgear (pictured in its open state).
The product is part of ABBs Plug and Switch
System (PASS) family of hybrid high-voltage
switchgear.
The latest 420 kV PASS hybrid modules
integrate the functions of a circuit breaker,
disconnector and earthing switch, as well
as current and voltage transformers in one
product.
According to ABB, the compactness of
the switchgear module can help reduce the
footprint of the switchgear bay where it is
installed by up to 50 per cent when compared
with air-insulated switchgear that have
comparable ratings.
The PASS product family now covers
voltages from 72.5 kV to 420 kV, with breaking
current capability ranging from 31.5 to 63 kA.
Giandomenico Rivetti, head of ABBs high
voltage business, said: The innovative design
features of this new product enable ease of
transportation and make it quick and easy
to install.
New high-voltage hybrid switchgear unveiled
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